The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 (c. 47) is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
. It applies to
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...
and creates criminal offences pertaining to
attempt
An attempt to commit a crime occurs if a criminal has an intent to commit a crime and takes a substantial step toward completing the crime, but for reasons not intended by the criminal, the final resulting crime does not occur.''Criminal Law - ...
ing to commit crimes. It abolished the
common law offence of attempt.
Provisions
Attempting to commit an offence
Section 1(1) of the Act creates the offence of ''attempt'':
Section 1 applies to any
indictable offence triable in England and Wales, except
conspiracy,
aiding and abetting, and offences under sections 4 and 5 of the
Criminal Law Act 1967 (which deal with assisting offenders and concealing information about crimes).
Section 1(2) reads:
Section 1(3) states that a person is to be judged according to what the defendant thought the facts of the case were at the time of the attempt, rather than what the facts really were, in the event that the defendant was mistaken about what was happening.
Section 2 states that rules regarding time limits for prosecuting, powers of arrest and search, and so on, are the same for offences of attempting to commit an offence as they are for the offence attempted.
Section 3 provides that where another Act creates an offence of attempting to commit an offence under that Act, similar rules apply to that offence as the rules in section 1 (unless the other Act specifically says otherwise).
Section 4 generally sets the penalties for attempting to commit an offence as the same as the offence attempted. The only exception today is
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
, which carries a
mandatory sentence of
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...
, whereas section 4 makes the sentence for attempted murder discretionary (up to a maximum of life imprisonment).
Historically, offences under the
Sexual Offences Act 1956 (repealed in 2004) were exempt from section 4, and attempts to commit sexual offences sometimes carried lower sentences than the completed offence. For example,
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
was punishable with life imprisonment, but attempted rape carried a maximum of seven years, until the 1956 Act was amended by the
Sexual Offences Act 1985.
Other offences
The Act abolished the offence of "loitering with intent" under the
Vagrancy Act 1824.
[Section 8]
Section 9 creates a
summary offence called "vehicle interference." This is committed by interfering with a
motor vehicle
A motor vehicle, also known as a motorized vehicle, automotive vehicle, automobile, or road vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on railway track, rails (such as trains or trams), does not fly (such ...
or trailer, or anything in the vehicle or trailer, with intent to steal it or anything in it. It carries a maximum sentence of three months.
Case law
* ''
Anderton v Ryan''
985AC 560
* ''
R v Shivpuri''
987AC 1
References
External links
*
Full text of the Act as amended and currently in force
{{UK legislation
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1981
English criminal law
Law enforcement in England and Wales
Attempt