Criminal Justice Act 2003

Criminal Justice Act 2003

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about criminal justice (including the powers and duties of the police) and about dealing with offenders; to amend the law relating to jury service; to amend Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and Part 5 of the Police Act 1997; to make provision about civil proceedings brought by offenders; and for connected purposes.
Citation	c. 44
Territorial extent	England and Wales (entire Act)[1] Scotland and Northern Ireland (parts)[2] Channel Islands and Isle of Man (by Order in Council)[3]
Dates
Royal assent	20 November 2003
Other legislation
Amended by	Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Large portions of the act were repealed and replaced by the Sentencing Act 2020.^[4]

It amends the law relating to police powers, bail, disclosure, allocation of criminal offences, prosecution appeals, autrefois acquit ("double jeopardy"), hearsay, propensity evidence, bad character evidence, sentencing and release on licence. It permits offences to be tried by a judge sitting alone without a jury in cases where there is a danger of jury-tampering. It also expands the circumstances in which defendants can be tried twice for the same offence (double jeopardy), when "new and compelling evidence" is introduced.