An Act to amend the law of England and Wales with respect to criminal conspiracy; to make new provision in that law, in place of the provisions of the common law and the Statutes of Forcible Entry, for restricting the use or threat of violence for securing entry into any premises and for penalising unauthorised entry or remaining on premises in certain circumstances; otherwise to amend the criminal law, including the law with respect to the administration of criminal justice; to provide for the alteration of certain pecuniary and other limits; to amend section 9(4) of the Administration of Justice Act 1973, the Legal Aid Act 1974, the Rabies Act 1974 and the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) Order 1975 and the law about juries and coroners inquests; and for connected purposes.
The Criminal Law Act 1977 (c. 45) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Most of it only applies to England and Wales. It creates the offence of conspiracy in English law. It also created offences concerned with criminal trespass in premises, made changes to sentencing, and created an offence of falsely reporting the existence of a bomb.
Part II - Offences relating to entering and remaining on property
This Part implemented recommendations contained in the Report on Conspiracy and Criminal Law Reform (Law Com 76) by the Law Commission.
Section 6 - Violence for securing entry
Section 6 creates an offence of using or threatening unauthorised violence for the purpose of securing entry into any premises, while there is known to be a person inside opposing entry. Violence is taken to include violence to property, as well as to people.[2]
This section has been widely used by squatters in England and Wales, as it makes it a crime in most circumstances for the landlord to force entry, as long as the squatters are physically present and express opposition to the landlord's entry. "Squatters rights" do not apply when the property appears to be occupied (e.g. there are signs of current use, furniture, etc.).
Section 6 is referred to in printed legal warnings, which are commonly displayed near the entrances to squatted buildings.[3] Squatters are not protected by the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, which makes it a crime to evict tenants without following the legal process.
Reasonable force used by a bailiff executing a possession order would not be considered unauthorised violence, so landlords can still legally regain possession through the courts.
Section 7 - Adverse occupation of residential premises
Section 8 - Trespassing with a weapon of offence
Section 9 - Trespassing on the premises of foreign missions etc
The purpose of this offence is to fill the lacuna that might otherwise have been left in the law by the abolition of the common law offence of conspiracy to trespass by section 5(1) of the Act.[4]
Section 10 - Obstruction of court officers executing process for possession against unauthorised occupiers
Section 11 - Power of entry for the purpose of Part II of the Act
Section 12 - Supplementary provisions
Section 13 - Abolitions and repeals
This section abolished existing offences and repealed earlier statutes that were superseded by Part II of the Act.
This Part implemented recommendations contained in the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Distribution of Criminal Business between the Crown Court and Magistrates' Courts (Cmnd 6323) (1975).
Section 14 - Preliminary
This section provided that sections 15 to 24 had effect for the purpose of securing that, as regards mode of trial, there were only three classes of offence, namely offences triable only on indictment, offences triable only summarily and offences triable either way, for laying down a single procedure applicable to all cases where a person who had attained the age of seventeen appeared or was brought before a magistrates' court on an information charging him with an offence triable either way, and for related purposes.
Section 15 - Offences which are to become triable only summarily
Section 16 - Offences which are to become triable either way
Section 52 - Misuse of Drugs Act 1971: redefinition of cannabis
This section substitutes the definition of cannabis in section 37(1) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 so that it includes leaves and stalks of the plant other than mature stalk separated from the rest of the plant. It was enacted in response to the successful appeal in R v Goodchild [1977] 2 All ER 163, [1977] 1 WLR 473 for the possession of dried leaves and stalks of the plant containing cannabis resin because these could not be described as "flowering and fruiting tops" of the plant and therefore did not fall within the definition then provided.[6]
Section 53 - Amendments of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 with respect to cinematograph exhibitions
