The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 (c 47) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It applies to

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the 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. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

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 Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...

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 In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

triable in England and Wales, except

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

aiding and abetting Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally allo ...

, and offences under sections 4 and 5 of the

Criminal Law Act 1967 The Criminal Law Act 1967 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made some major changes to English criminal law, as part of wider liberal reforms by the Labour government elected in 1966. Most of it is still in force. Territ ...

(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, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, which carries a

mandatory sentence Mandatory sentencing requires that offenders serve a predefined term for certain crimes, commonly serious and violent offenses. Judges are bound by law; these sentences are produced through the legislature, not the judicial system. They are inst ...

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

, 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 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 Sex ...

(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 usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

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 The Sexual Offences Act 1985 (c.44) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created two offences concerning prostitution, and increased the maximum sentence for attempted rape from seven years to life imprisonment. The act wa ...

Other offences

The Act abolished the offence of "loitering with intent" under the

Vagrancy Act 1824 The Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. It is still mostly in force and enforceable. Critics, including William Wilberforce, c ...

.Section 8 Section 9 creates a

summary offence A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment (required for an indictable offence). Canada In Canada, summary offenc ...

called "vehicle interference." This is committed by interfering with a

motor vehicle A motor vehicle, also known as motorized vehicle or automotive vehicle, is a self-propelled land vehicle, commonly wheeled, that does not operate on Track (rail transport), rails (such as trains or trams) and is used for the transportation of pe ...

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 ''Anderton v Ryan'' 985is a House of Lords case in English criminal law (in the highest court of the land at the time), on whether an act which would amount to an offence but which by virtue of a misunderstanding of the goods involved was impos ...

985 Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...

AC 560 * ''

R v Shivpuri ''R v Shivpuri'' 986UKHL 2 is a House of Lords case in English law as to whether a criminal attempt which had a "more than merely preparatory act" and mens rea of an inchoate stage but of a crime which transpired to be impossible (or rendered la ...

'' 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