Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954

Changes to legislation:

Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954, Section 20 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 23 January 2025. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date. Changes that have been made appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.

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Changes and effects yet to be applied to Section 20:

s. 20(2) applied (with modifications) by 2015 c. 8 (N.I.) s. 125(1)

F120 Offences.N.I.

(1)Where any act or omission constitutes an offence under two or more than two statutory provisions or under a statutory provision and at common law, the offender shall be liable to be prosecuted and punished under either or any of those provisions or at common law, but shall not be liable to be punished twice for the same offence.

F2 F3(2)Where an offence under any enactment passed after the commencement of this Act has been committed by a body corporate the liability of whose members is limited, then notwithstanding and without prejudice to the liability of that body, any person who at the time of such commission was a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of that body or was purporting to act in any such capacity shall, subject to sub-section (3), be liable to be prosecuted as if he had personally committed that offence and shall, if on such prosecution it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that he consented to, or connived at, or did not exercise all such reasonable diligence as he ought in the circumstances to have exercised to prevent the offence, having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances, be liable to the like conviction and punishment as if he had personally been guilty of that offence.

(3)A person shall not be charged under sub-section (2) [F4except by or with the consent of the Attorney-General or the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland].

(4)An enactment creating criminal liability for an act or omission which, apart from that enactment, would give rise to civil liability shall not operate to prejudice the civil liability F5....

F1mod. by SI 2004/1769

F2mod. by 2005 NI 17

F3mod. by 2002 NI 7

F41972 NI 1

continue to am. 2002 c. 26

F51967 c. 18 (NI)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1S. 20 applied with mods. (15.10.2012) by The Alien and Locally Absent Species in Aquaculture Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 (S.R. 2012/335), regs. 1, 22(1) (with reg. 24)

C2S. 20(1) applied (31.5.2021 for specified purposes) by Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (c. 18), ss. 269(7), 307(2) (with ss. 285-287); S.R. 2019/163, art. 2(5), Sch. Pt. 5 (with art. 3) (as amended by S.R. 2019/190, art. 2 and S.R. 2020/246, art. 2)