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1956 c. 69
Sexual Offences Act 1956 (1956 c. 69)
An Act to consolidate (with corrections and improvements made under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act 1949) the statute law of England and Wales relating to sexual crimes, to the abduction, procuration and prostitution of women and to kindred offences, and to make such adaptations of statutes extending beyond England and Wales as are needed in consequence of that consolidation.
Data synced
Part I — Offences, and the Prosecution and Punishment of Offences
Intercourse by force, intimidation, etc.
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Intercourse with girls under sixteen
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Intercourse with defectives
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Incest
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Unnatural offences
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Assaults
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Abduction
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Prostitution, procuration etc.
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s 28Causing or encouraging prostitution of, intercourse with, or indecent assault on, girl under sixteen.Open ↗
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Solicitation
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Suppression of brothels
It is an offence for a person to keep a brothel, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel.
(1) It is an offence for a person to keep, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel to which people resort for practices involving prostitution (whether or not also for other practices).
(2) In this section “ prostitution ” has the meaning given by section 51(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
It is an offence for the lessor or landlord of any premises or his agent to let the whole or part of the premises with the knowledge that it is to be used, in whole or in part, as a brothel, or, where the whole or part of the premises is used as a brothel, to be wilfully a party to that use continuing.
(1) It is an offence for the tenant or occupier, or person in charge, of any premises knowingly to permit the whole or part of the premises to be used as a brothel.
(2) Where the tenant or occupier of any premises is convicted ... of knowingly permitting the whole or part of the premises to be used as a brothel, the First Schedule to this Act shall apply to enlarge the rights of the lessor or landlord with respect to the assignment or determination of the lease or other contract under which the premises are held by the person convicted.
(3) Where the tenant or occupier of any premises is so convicted, ... and either—
(a) the lessor or landlord, after having the conviction brought to his notice, fails or failed to exercise his statutory rights in relation to the lease or contract under which the premises are or were held by the person convicted; or
(b) The lessor or landlord, after exercising his statutory rights so as to determine that lease or contract, grants or granted a new lease or enters or entered into a new contract of tenancy of the premises to, with or for the benefit of the same person, without having all reasonable provisions to prevent the recurrence of the offence inserted in the new lease or contract;
then, if subsequently an offence under this section is committed in respect of the premises during the subsistence of the lease or contract referred to in paragraph ( a ) of this subsection or (where paragraph ( b ) applies) during the subsistence of the new lease or contract, the lessor or landlord shall be deemed to be a party to that offence unless he shows that he took all reasonable steps to prevent the recurrence of the offence.
References in this subsection to the statutory rights of a lessor or landlord refer to his rights under the First Schedule to this Act ....
It is an offence for the tenant or occupier of any premises knowingly to permit the whole or part of the premises to be used for the purposes of habitual prostitution. (whether any prostitute involved is male or female)
Powers and procedure for dealing with offenders
(1) The Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect, subject to and in accordance with the following provisions of this section, with respect to the prosecution and punishment of the offences listed in the first column of the Schedule, being the offences under this Act and attempts to commit certain of those offences.
(2) The second column in the Schedule shows, for any offence, if it may be prosecuted on indictment or summarily, or either, . . . and what special restrictions (if any) there are on the commencement of a prosecution.
(3) The third column in the Schedule shows, for any offence, the punishments which may be imposed on conviction on indictment or on summary conviction, a reference to a period giving the maximum term of imprisonment and a reference to a sum of money the maximum fine.
(4) The fourth column in the Schedule contains provisions which are either supplementary to those in the second or third column or enable a person charged on indictment with the offence specified in the first column to be found guilty of another offence if the jury are not satisfied that he is guilty of the offence charged or of an attempt to commit it, but are satisfied that he is guilty of the other offence.
(5) A provision in the fourth column of the Schedule enabling the jury to find the accused guilty of an offence specified in that provision authorises them, if not satisfied that he is guilty of the offence so specified, to find him guilty of any other offence of which they could find him guilty if he had been indicted for the offence so specified.
(6) Where in the Schedule there is used a phrase descriptive of an offence or group of offences followed by a reference to a section by its number only, the reference is to a section of this Act, and the phrase shall be taken as referring to any offence under the section mentioned.
(7) Nothing in this section or in the Second Schedule to this Act shall exclude the application to any of the offences referred to in the first column of the Schedule—
(a) of section 24 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (which relates to the summary trial of young offenders for indictable offences); or
(b) of subsection (5) of section 121 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 (which limits the punishment which may be imposed by a magistrates’ court sitting in an occasional courthouse); or
(c) of any enactment or rule of law restricting a court’s power to imprison; or
(d) of any enactment or rule of law authorising an offender to be dealt with in a way not authorised by the enactments specially relating to his offence; or
(e) of any enactment or rule of law authorising a jury to find a person guilty of an offence other than that with which he is charged.
Powers of arrest and search
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Interpretation
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Part II — Supplementary
Consequential amendments
The enactments mentioned in the first column of the Third Schedule to this Act shall be amended as shown in the second column of that Schedule.
(1) In Northern Ireland, a conviction under section thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five or thirty-six of this Act shall be taken into account under section three of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (Northern Ireland) 1923, in the same way as a conviction under section thirteen of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
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(1) Nothing in this Act shall affect any previous enactment in its operation in relation to offences under any such enactment committed or partly committed before the commencement of this Act, or in relation to anything done before that commencement under the authority or for the purposes of any such enactment:
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(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, and in particular to those of the Third Schedule, any reference in any document to an enactment repealed by this Act shall be construed as referring, or as including a reference, to the corresponding provision of this Act, so far as may be necessary to prevent this Act altering the substantial effect of the document.
(3) Without prejudice to the last foregoing subsection any reference in any document to an offence under an enactment repealed by this Act, if it referred, or included a reference, to an attempt to commit an offence under such an enactment, shall be construed as referring, or as including a reference, to an attempt to commit the corresponding offence under this Act, so far as may be necessary to prevent this Act altering the substantial effect of the document.
(4) The inclusion in this Act of any express saving or amendment shall not be taken as prejudicing the operation of section thirty-eight of the Interpretation Act 1889 (which relates to the effect of repeals).
Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to any other enactment shall be taken as referring to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment, including this Act.
(1) This Act shall not extend to Scotland, . . ..
(2) This Act shall not extend to Northern Ireland, except section fifty . . ..
This Act may be cited as the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
This Act shall come into force on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven.
Schedules
FIRST SCHEDULE — Rights of Landlord where Tenant convicted of
permitting use of premises as Brothel
Upon the conviction of the tenant or occupier (in this Schedule referred to as “ the tenant ”), the lessor or landlord may require the tenant to assign or transfer the lease or other contract under which the premises are held by him to some person approved by the lessor or landlord.
If the tenant fails to do so within three months, the lessor or landlord may determine the lease or contract (but without prejudice to the rights or remedies of any party thereto accrued before the date of the determination).
Where the lease or contract is determined under this Schedule, the court by which the tenant was convicted may make a summary order for delivery of possession of the premises to the lessor or landlord.
The approval of the lessor or landlord for the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Schedule shall not be unreasonably withheld.
This Schedule shall have effect subject to the Rent and Mortgage Interest Restrictions Acts 1920 to 1939, the Furnished Houses (Rent Control) Act 1946, Part II of the Reserve and Auxiliary Forces (Protection of Civil Interests) Act 1951, and Part I of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part I of the Housing Act 1988 and Schedule 10 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 .
Cite this legislation
- Official citation
- 1956 c. 69
- Source
- legislation.gov.uk
- Data synced
- Licence
- OGL-3 ↗
Sexual Offences Act 1956 (legislation.gov.uk, OGL-3). Retrieved via LawPlayer, https://lawplayer.com/uk/act/ukpga-1956-69
This text is synced from legislation.gov.uk. In case of any discrepancy, the official version prevails.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (legislation.gov.uk).