Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

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Commencement of provisions within the Act

Commencement Order No. 10 - provisions relating to mental disorder and unfitness for trial came into force on 25 June 2012. Our justice circular provides further details.

Commencement Order No. 9 - various provisions came into force on 1 November 2011.

Commencement Order No. 8 - various provisions came into force on 28 March 2011 (and other dates in the spring/summer 2011). Our justice circular provides further details.

Commencement Order No. 7 - section 108(2) and (3) came into force on 28 February 2011.

Commencement Order No. 6 - various provisions came into force on 13 December 2010 (and other dates in early 2011). Our justice circular provides further details.

Commencement Order No. 5 - section 83 came into force on 5 November 2010.

Commencement Order No. 4 - sections 43, 44 and 63 came into force on 1 December 2010.

Commencement Order No. 3 - section 108(1) and (4) came into force on 12 October 2010.

Commencement Order No. 2 - sections 38 and 97 came into force on 6 October 2010. This commencement included a new 'threatening or abusive behaviour' criminal offence designed to close a loophole in the common law of breach of the peace. Our justice circular provides further details.

Commencement Order No. 1 - section 178(3)(e) came into force on 16 August 2010.

Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

On 30 June 2010, the Scottish Parliament passed the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill with Royal Assent for the legislation being received in early August 2010.

The full text of the Act can be found through the legislation.gov.uk website - Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

This Act makes a number of changes to how our justice system operates including:

Make sentences served in the community more robust, immediate and visible through the creation of the Community Payback Order and introduce a presumption against short prison sentences of 3 months or less
Take the fight to those involved in organised crime through the creation of new serious organised crime offences
Create a new specific statutory offence in relation to stalking
Crack down on prisoners who make use of advances in mobile phone technology to run their criminal empires from prison
Raise the age at which a child can be prosecuted in adult criminal courts from eight to 12 to help ensure the rights and needs of children are balanced properly with the protection of communities
Help the courts and prosecutors through a number of sensible reforms to the criminal law and court procedures - ensuring the interests of justice are served and protecting the rights of victims and witnesses
Assist in the detection of crime through improvements to the law as regards when DNA and fingerprint data is able to be retained for use in detecting and prosecuting crime
Provide a statutory framework for the disclosure of evidence to the defence in criminal cases - confirming the integrity as to how our courts deal with cases
Ensure our licensing laws are robust

The provisions in the Act have been brought into force through a series of commencement orders. Full details can be found through the links on this page.

Scottish Government