Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

2005 CHAPTER 15

The Act

Commentary on Sections

Part 4: Public order and conduct in public places etc.

Section 127: Harassment etc: police direction to stay away from person's home

316. Section 127 amends section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 (the “2001 Act”) to make it an offence for a person, where he is subject to a direction to leave the vicinity, to return within a period of up to 3 months (the precise length of time to be specified by a constable) for the purposes of representing to or persuading a person not to do something he is entitled to do, or to do something he is not obliged to do.

317. It is doubtful whether a direction issued by a police officer under section 42 could lawfully direct a person to stay away from the premises for anything other than a relatively short period of time. Section 127 addresses this point.

318. Subsection (2) substitutes a new section 42(4) of the 2001 Act, which sets out the requirements that may be imposed by a direction. This gives a police constable the discretion to require someone either just to leave the vicinity of the premises in question, or to leave the vicinity and not to return to it within a specified period of up to 3 months.

319. The effect of subsections (3) and (4) of section 127 is to create different offences and penalties for non-compliance with a direction, depending on the requirements imposed by the direction.

320. Subsection (3) amends subsection 42(7), which is the current offence and penalty for knowingly contravening a direction given by a constable, to make it clear that the offence in 42(7) does not apply to situations where a requirement to leave the vicinity and not to return within a specified period has not been complied with.

321. Subsection (4) inserts new subsections (7A) to (7C) in section 42 of the 2001 Act. New subsection (7A) creates a new offence of failure to comply with a direction to leave the vicinity and not to return within a specified period for the purposes of representing to or persuading the resident that he should do something or not to do something. New subsection (7B) sets out the penalty for an offence committed under subsection (7A).

322. New subsection (7C) is a transitional provision which takes into account the alteration of penalties for summary offences in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Until section 281(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 comes into force, the maximum custodial penalty for the new offence will be 6 months.