(1)This Act shall come into force on 29th August 1967; and in so far as it affects any matter of procedure or evidence or the jurisdiction or powers of any court in relation to offences, it shall have effect in relation to proceedings on indictment for an offence (except as provided by the following subsections) if, but only if, the person charged with the offence is arraigned on or after that day.
(2)Subject to subsection (3) where a person is arraigned after the commencement of this Act on an indictment for a felony committed before that commencement, the offence shall be deemed always to have been a misdemeanour and, notwithstanding that the indictment is framed as an indictment for felony, shall be deemed to be charged as a misdemeanour in the indictment.
(3)Where a person is arraigned after the commencement of this Act on an indictment charging him with being an accessory after the fact to a felony committed before that commencement, that felony shall, as regards that person, be deemed to be an arrestable offence, and notwithstanding that the indictment is so framed it shall be deemed to charge that person with an offence under section 4(1) and section 4(4) shall not apply.
(4)On an indictment signed before the commencement of this Act, a person may be found guilty of any offence of which he could have been found guilty on that indictment if this Act had not been passed, but not of any other offence; and where a person has been tried for or convicted of felony before the commencement of this Act, the trial or conviction may be proved in any manner in which it could have been proved if this Act had not been passed.
(5)Subject to any express amendment or repeal made by this Act, the following provisions have effect in relation to any enactment passed before this Act:—
(a)any enactment creating an offence by directing it to be felony shall be read as directing it to be an offence, and nothing in this Act shall affect the operation of any reference to an offence in the enactments specially relating to that offence by reason only of the reference being in terms no longer applicable after the commencement of this Act;
(b)any enactment referring to felonious stealing or to felonious taking shall be read as referring merely to stealing;
(c)nothing in this Act shall affect the punishment provided for an offence by the enactments specially relating to that offence.
Subs.(6) rep. by 1968 c.10 (NI)
(7)In this Act references to felony shall not be taken as including treason; but the procedure on trials for treason or misprision of treason shall be the same as the procedure as altered by this Act on trials for murder.
(8)In this Act “enactment” means any statutory provision within the meaning of paragraph ( f) of section 1 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 [1954 c.33] .