Criminal Justice Act 1993

• Enactment Date: 03 April 1993
• Act Number: 6

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Number 6 of 1993

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1993

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2022

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This Revised Act is an administrative consolidation of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

All Acts up to and including the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 (50/2021), enacted 23 December 2021, and all statutory instruments up to and including the Health (Residential Support Services Maintenance and Accommodation Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 1 of 2022), made 2 January 2022, were considered in the preparation of this Revised Act.

Disclaimer: While every care has been taken in the preparation of this Revised Act, the Law Reform Commission can assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided and does not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions. Please notify any errors, omissions and comments by email to

revisedacts@lawreform.ie.

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Number 6 of 1993

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1993

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2022

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Introduction

This Revised Act presents the text of the Act as it has been amended since enactment, and preserves the format in which it was passed.

Related legislation

This Act is not collectively cited with any other Act.

Annotations

This Revised Act is annotated and includes textual and non-textual amendments, statutory instruments made pursuant to the Act and previous affecting provisions.

An explanation of how to read annotations is available at

www.lawreform.ie/annotations.

Material not updated in this revision

Where other legislation is amended by this Act, those amendments may have been superseded by other amendments in other legislation, or the amended legislation may have been repealed or revoked. This information is not represented in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the amended legislation if one is available.

Where legislation or a fragment of legislation is referred to in annotations, changes to this legislation or fragment may not be reflected in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the legislation referred to if one is available.

A list of legislative changes to any Act, and to statutory instruments from 1972, may be found linked from the page of the Act or statutory instrument at

www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Acts which affect or previously affected this revision

• Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 (28/2017)

• Court of Appeal Act 2014 (18/2014)

• Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012 (11/2012)

• Criminal Procedure Act 2010 (27/2010)

• Criminal Justice Act 2006 (26/2006)

• Children Act 2001 (24/2001)

• Criminal Justice Act 1999 (10/1999)

All Acts up to and including Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 (50/2021), enacted 23 December 2021, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

Statutory instruments which affect or previously affected this revision

None

All statutory instruments up to and including Health (Residential Support Services Maintenance and Accommodation Contributions) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 1 of 2022), made 2 January 2022, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

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Number 6 of 1993

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1993

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2022

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ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

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Acts Referred to
Children Act, 1908	1908, c. 67
Civil Liability Act, 1961	1961, No. 41
Criminal Damage Act, 1991	1991, No. 31
Criminal Evidence Act, 1992	1992, No. 12
Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962	1962, No. 12
Criminal Procedure Act, 1967	1967, No. 12
Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1940	1940, No. 24
Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976	1976, No. 11
Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1821	1821, c. 33
Probation of Offenders Act, 1907	1907, c. 30
Prosecution of Offences Act, 1974	1974, No. 22
Punishment of Incest Act, 1908	1908, c. 45
Road Traffic Act, 1961	1961, No. 24
Trial of Lunatics Act, 1883	1883, c. 38

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Number 6 of 1993

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 1993

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2022

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AN ACT TO ENABLE THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL TO REVIEW UNDULY LENIENT SENTENCES, TO MAKE OTHER PROVISION IN RELATION TO SENTENCING, TO PROVIDE FOR THE PAYMENT BY OFFENDERS OF COMPENSATION FOR INJURY OR LOSS RESULTING FROM THEIR OFFENCES, TO AMEND THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT, 1967, AND THE PUNISHMENT OF INCEST ACT, 1908, AND TO PROVIDE FOR CONNECTED MATTERS. [3rd April, 1993]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

Interpretation.

1

1. — (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“ compensation order ” and “ injured party ” have the meanings assigned to them by section 6 ;

“ imprisonment ” includes detention in Saint Patrick's Institution;

“ sentence ” includes a sentence of imprisonment and any other order made by a court in dealing with a convicted person other than—

(a) an order under section 17 of the Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1821, or section 2 (2) of the Trial of Lunatics Act, 1883, or

(b) an order postponing sentence for the purpose of obtaining a medical or psychiatric report or a report by a probation officer;

“ sentencing court ” means the court referred to in section 2 (1).

(2) References in sections 2 (1) and 4 (1) to conviction of a person on indictment include references to conviction of a person after signing a plea of guilty and being sent forward for sentence under section 13 (2) (b) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1967.

(3) This Act shall not apply to sentences imposed on persons convicted before its commencement.

(4) In this Act—

(a) a reference to a section is a reference to a section of this Act, unless it is indicated that reference to some other enactment is intended, and

(b) a reference to a subsection or paragraph is a reference to the subsection or paragraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that reference to some other provision is intended.

Review of certain sentences.

2

2. — (1) If it appears to the Director of Public Prosecutions that a sentence imposed by a court (in this Act referred to as the “ sentencing court ”) on conviction of a person on indictment was unduly lenient, he may apply to the Court of Criminal Appeal to review the sentence.

(2) An application under this section shall be made, on notice given to the convicted person, within 28 days F1[, or such longer period not exceeding 56 days as the Court may, on application to it in that behalf, determine,] from the day on which the sentence was imposed.

(3) On such an application, the Court may either—

(a) quash the sentence and in place of it impose on the convicted person such sentence as it considers appropriate, being a sentence which could have been imposed on him by the sentencing court concerned, or

(b) refuse the application.

(4) Section 6 of the Prosecution of Offences Act, 1974 (which prohibits certain communications in relation to criminal proceedings), shall apply, with any necessary modifications, to communications made to the persons mentioned in that section for the purpose of influencing the making of a decision in relation to an application under this section as it applies to such communications made for the purpose of making a decision to withdraw or not to initiate criminal proceedings or any particular charge in criminal proceedings.

Annotations:

Amendments:

F1

Inserted (1.08.2006) by Criminal Justice Act 2006 (26/2006), s. 23, S.I. No. 390 of 2006.

Minor and consequential provisions.

3.—F2[…]

Annotations:

Amendments:

F2

Repealed (28.10.2014) by Court of Appeal Act 2014 (18/2014), s. 73 and sch. 1 item 7, S.I. No. 479 of 2014.

Minor and consequential provisions.

4

4. — (1) The registrar of a court which has imposed a sentence on conviction of a person on indictment shall—

(a) give to the Director of Public Prosecutions, on request, a copy of any reports or other relevant documents that were considered by the court before it imposed the sentence, and

(b) if the sentence has become the subject of an application under section 2 , give a copy of those documents to the Court of Criminal Appeal and the convicted person.

F3[(2) Where an application has been made to the Court of Appeal under section 2—

(a) a legal aid (appeal) certificate shall be deemed for the purposes of the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962 to have been granted in respect of the person whose sentence is the subject of the application, and

(b) the person shall be entitled to free legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his or her case before the Court of Appeal and to have a solicitor and counsel assigned to him or her for that purpose in the manner prescribed by regulations under section 10 of that Act.]

Annotations:

Amendments:

F3

Substituted (28.10.2014) by Court of Appeal Act 2014 (18/2014), s. 51, S.I. No. 479 of 2014.

F4[Effect of certain offences on persons in respect of whom committed.

5

5.—F5[(1) This section applies to an offence where a natural person in respect of whom the offence has been committed, has suffered harm, including physical, mental or emotional harm, or economic loss, which was directly caused by that offence.]

(2) (a) When imposing sentence on a person for...