Sexual Offences Act 1956
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The Sexual Offences Act 1956 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 69) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed (from 1 May 2004) by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 act also added a new section 33A. These sections create offences to deal with brothels.
Although the rest of the act has been repealed, the repealed sections still apply to sex crimes committed before the repeal, such as in the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004.
The act today
[edit source]Sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 create summary offences. Section 33A creates an aggravated version of the offence in section 33, and is an indictable offence. Section 37 prescribes the penalties.
Sections 33 and 33A
[edit source]Section 33 reads:
It is an offence for a person to keep a brothel, or to manage, or act or assist in the management of, a brothel.
Section 33A reads:
(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.
The difference between these offences arises because the definition of a brothel in English law does not require that the premises are used for the purposes of prostitution, since a brothel exists wherever more than one person offers sexual contact, whether for payment or not.[1]
"Prostitution" is defined by section 51(2) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as follows:
In those sections “prostitute” means a person (A) who, on at least one occasion and whether or not compelled to do so, offers or provides sexual services to another person in return for payment or a promise of payment to A or a third person; and “prostitution” is to be interpreted accordingly.
"Payment" is defined by section 51(3):
In subsection (2), “payment” means any financial advantage, including the discharge of an obligation to pay or the provision of goods or services (including sexual services) gratuitously or at a discount.
Section 34
[edit source]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.
Section 35(1)
[edit source]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.
Section 36
[edit source]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.
Penalties
[edit source]Section 37 gives effect to Schedule 2 to the act, which sets out the penalties for the above offences. For sections 33, 34, 35 and 36 the penalty is imprisonment for three months for a first offence, or six months "for an offence committed after a previous conviction" for any of those offences.
The maximum sentence for the offence under section 33A is six months in a magistrates' court, or seven years in the Crown Court.
Succeeding Sexual Offences Acts
[edit source]- The Street Offences Act 1959 prohibited soliciting "in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution."[2]
- The Sexual Offences Act 1985 prohibited kerb crawling and persistently soliciting women for the purposes of prostitution.[3]
- The Sexual Offences Act 2003 inserted section 33A into the 1956 Act, and created further offences relating to prostitution:
- Sections 47 to 50 prohibit child prostitution.
- Sections 52 and 53 prohibit pimping for financial gain.
- Sections 57 to 59 create offences relating to sex trafficking.
The Act as originally enacted
[edit source]Comparative table
[edit source]Repealed enactments
[edit source]Section 51 of the act repealed 16 enactments, listed in the fourth schedule to the act.[5]
| Citation | Short title | Extent of repeal |
|---|---|---|
| 24 & 25 Vict.. c. 100 | Offences against the Person Act 1861 | Sections forty-eight, fifty-two to fifty-five and sixty-one to sixty-three and, so far as they relate to offences mentioned in those sections, sections sixty-four to sixty-eight and seventy-one. |
| 48 & 49 Vict.. c. 69 | Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 | The whole act. |
| 61 & 62 Vict.. c. 36 | Criminal Evidence Act 1898 | In the Schedule, the entries relating to the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885, to the Punishment of Incest Act, 1908, and to the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913. |
| 61 & 62 Vict.. c. 39 | Vagrancy Act 1898 | The whole act. |
| 8 Edw. 7. c. 45 | Punishment of Incest Act 1908 | The whole act. |
| 2 & 3 Geo. 5. c. 20 | Criminal Law Amendment Act 1912 | The whole act. |
| 3 & 4 Geo. 5. c. 28 | Mental Deficiency Act 1913 | Section fifty-six; in subsection (1) of section sixty, the words "except where otherwise expressly provided". |
| 12 & 13 Geo. 5. c. 56 | Criminal Law Amendment Act 1922 | The whole act. |
| 15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 86 | Criminal Justice Act 1925 | Paragraph 3 of the First Schedule. |
| 18 & 19 Geo. 5. c. 42 | Criminal Law Amendment Act 1928 | The whole act. |
| 19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 36 | Age of Marriage Act 1929 | The proviso to subsection (1) of section one. |
| 23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 12 | Children and Young Persons Act 1933 | Section two; subsection (2) of section three; in the First Schedule, the words "fifty-five", the words "fifty-two or sixty-two", the words "or under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885", the entry relating to the Punishment of Incest Act, 1908, and the word "two" in the next following entry. |
| 1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6. c. 12 | Firearms Act 1937 | In the Third Schedule, in the entry relating to the Offences against the Person Act, 1861, the words "forty-eight, and sections fifty-three to". |
| 11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 19 | Attempted Rape Act 1948 | The whole act. |
| 14 & 15 Geo. 6. c. 36 | Criminal Law Amendment Act 1951 | The whole act. |
| 15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. 67 | Visiting Forces Act 1952 | In sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph 1 of the Schedule, paragraphs (ii) and (iii) and in paragraph (iv) the words "section fifty-six of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, and". |
See also
[edit source]Notes
[edit source]References
[edit source]- ↑ Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice (2008) 20-233
- ↑ "Street Offences Act 1959". www.statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- ↑ "Sexual Offences Act 1985 (repealed)". www.statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Sweet and Maxwell (1956), Current Law Statutes Annotated
- ↑ "Sexual Offences Act 1956", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, Eliz2/4-5 c. 69
External links
[edit source]- Text of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 as originally enacted or made within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
- Text of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
