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Section 72: Supply of psychoactive substance in certain circumstances

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

Part 4: Exercise of court's discretion — CHAPTER 3: Seriousness and determining sentence

This section applies where—

a court is considering the seriousness of an offence under section 5 of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (supplying psychoactive substance etc), and
the offender was aged 18 or over when the offence was committed.

If condition A, B or C is met the court—

must treat the fact that the condition is met as an aggravating factor, and
must state in open court that the offence is so aggravated.

Condition A is that the offence was committed on or in the vicinity of school premises at a relevant time.

For the purposes of subsection (3)—

  • “relevant time”, in relation to school premises, means—

    (a)any time when the school premises are in use by persons under the age of 18;

    (b)one hour before the start and one hour after the end of any such time;

  • “school” has the same meaning as in section 6 of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016;

  • “school premises” means land used for the purposes of a school excluding any land occupied solely as a dwelling by a person employed at the school.

Condition B is that, in connection with the offence, the offender used a courier who, when the offence was committed, was aged under 18.

For the purposes of subsection (5), a person uses a courier in connection with an offence under section 5 of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 if the person causes or permits another person (“the courier”)—

to deliver a substance to a third person, or
to deliver a drug-related consideration to the person or a third person.

For the purposes of subsection (6), a drug-related consideration is a consideration of any description which—

is obtained in connection with the supply of a psychoactive substance, or
is intended to be used in connection with obtaining a psychoactive substance.

Condition C is that the offence was committed in a custodial institution.

For the purposes of subsection (8), “custodial institution” means any of the following—

a prison;
a young offender institution, secure training centre or secure college;
a removal centre, short-term holding facility or pre-departure accommodation (each, as defined in section 147 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999);
service custody premises (as defined in section 300(7) of the Armed Forces Act 2006).

In this section “psychoactive substance” has the same meaning as in the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (see section 2 of that Act).

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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.