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Section 40: Reporting of assertions: offences

Sentencing Act 2020 · 2020 c. 17View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 3: Procedure — CHAPTER 2: Derogatory assertion orders

If an assertion is published or included in a relevant programme in contravention of section 38, each of the following persons is guilty of an offence—

in the case of publication in a newspaper or periodical, any proprietor, any editor and any publisher of the newspaper or periodical;
in the case of publication in any other form, the person publishing the assertion;
in the case of an assertion included in a relevant programme, any body corporate engaged in providing the service in which the programme is included and any person having functions in relation to the programme corresponding to those of an editor of a newspaper.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to—

in England and Wales, a fine;
in Scotland, a fine of an amount not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Where a person is charged with an offence under this section it is a defence to prove that at the time of the alleged offence the person—

was not aware, and neither suspected nor had reason to suspect, that a derogatory assertion order or interim derogatory assertion order had effect at that time, or
was not aware, and neither suspected nor had reason to suspect, that the publication or programme in question was of, or (as the case may be) included, the assertion in question.

Where an offence under this section committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of—

a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or
a person purporting to act in any such capacity,

that person as well as the body corporate is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

In relation to a body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, “director” in subsection (4) means a member of the body corporate.

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.