Offences Against the Person Act 1861

rdf:langString Offences Against the Person Act 1861

rdf:langString Republic of Ireland

rdf:langString England and Wales,

rdf:langString Northern Ireland,

rdf:langString An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England and Ireland relating to Offences against the Person.

rdf:langString Parliament of the United Kingdom

rdf:langString Offences against the Person Act 1861

rdf:langString Amended

rdf:langString The Offences against the Person Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 100) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person (an expression, which, in particular, includes offences of violence) from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier Consolidation Act, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828 (and the equivalent Irish Act), incorporating subsequent statutes. Although it has been substantially amended, it continues to be the foundation for prosecuting personal injury, short of murder, in the courts of England and Wales. The Act was also adopted in British possessions. For example, New Zealand adopted the Act in 1866. In England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, the sexual offences under the Act have all been repealed. For legislation referring to sexual offences, see the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008. In Northern Ireland, the 1861 Act was the basis for a ban on abortion until 2019 when it was amended by the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019.