Section 52: Jurisdiction and Schedule 4
181.This section and Schedule 4 set out the rules that will govern jurisdiction over the offences in Part 2.
182.Subsection (1), together with subsection (3), sets out that a person may be convicted of the offences in Part 2, regardless of his own location, if he knew or believed that the act which would amount to the commission of an offence would take place, at least in part, in England and Wales or Northern Ireland.
183.For example, D in Belgium sends a number of emails to P in London, encouraging him to plant a bomb on the tube. D can be prosecuted in England and Wales or Northern Ireland despite the fact he was outside the jurisdiction when he did his act.
184.Subsection (2) sets out that if it is not possible to establish the circumstances required for jurisdiction to arise under subsection (1), it may be possible to convict a person of an offence under Part 2 if the facts of the case fall within paragraph 1, 2 or 3 of Schedule 4.
185.Schedule 4, paragraph 1 provides jurisdiction where a person does an act in England and Wales, capable of encouraging or assisting an offence, and knows or believes that what he anticipates might take place outside England and Wales but the offence is one for which a perpetrator could be tried in England and Wales if the anticipated offence were committed outside England and Wales, or relevant conditions exist that would make it so triable.
186.For example, the offence of murder is triable within England, Wales or Northern Ireland regardless of where it is committed if the defendant is “a subject of Her Majesty” so jurisdiction could fall within paragraph 1 in the following situation (subject to the Attorney General’s consent (section 53)): D (a British citizen) in England sends a parcel of poison to P (a British citizen), in France encouraging him to use it to murder V (also in France). It would be possible to try D in England because, as P is a British citizen, the anticipated principal offence (murder) is one which could be tried in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
187.Schedule 4, paragraph 2 provides jurisdiction where a person does an act in England and Wales, capable of encouraging or assisting an offence, and knows or believes that what he anticipates might take place in a country outside England and Wales but what he anticipates is also an offence under the law in force in that country.
188.For example, the offence of theft is an offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and also in Spain so jurisdiction could fall within paragraph 2 in the following situation (subject to the Attorney General’s consent (section 53): D in England sends an email to P in Spain containing details of how to disarm an alarm system used by a bank in Madrid. D intends to assist P to rob the bank.
189.Sub-paragraph (2) provides a mechanism whereby the defence can challenge an assertion that what a person anticipates is an offence in the relevant country. Sub-paragraphs (3) to (5) provide further guidance on how that challenge should operate.
190.Schedule 4, paragraph 3 provides jurisdiction where a person does an act outside England and Wales, capable of encouraging or assisting an offence, and knows or believes that what he anticipates might take place outside England and Wales but the offence is one for which it would be possible to prosecute the person who provides encouragement or assistance in England and Wales if he were to commit the offence as a principal in that place.
191.For example, murder is an offence for which a perpetrator who is a British citizen could be tried in England and Wales or Northern Ireland regardless of where it is committed so jurisdiction could fall within paragraph 3 in the following situation (subject to the Attorney General’s consent (section 53)): D (a British citizen) in Canada sends a parcel of poison to P in France encouraging him to use it to murder V (also in France). It would be possible to try D in England because he is a British citizen and the anticipated principal offence (murder) is one which could be tried in England, Wales or Northern Ireland as it would be committed by a British citizen.
192.Subsection (4) sets out that references in this section and in Schedule 4 to England and Wales should be read as if they were references to Northern Ireland in their application to Northern Ireland.
193.The effect of subsection (5) is that the general jurisdictional rules for Part 2 offences (contained in Section 52 and Schedule 4 of the Bill) are without prejudice to any specific jurisdictional rules which already exist for certain offences on the statute book. For example, sexual offences have their own jurisdictional rules (provided for in the Sexual Offences Act 2003). As such, jurisdiction for encouraging or assisting an offence under the Sexual Offences Act will be governed by that Act, rather than the rules created in Part 2.
