R v QX

Where a conviction under section 10(3) of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 depends on a Temporary Exclusion Order, Schedule 4 requires the Court of Appeal to quash the conviction if that order has been quashed and the statutory conditions are met. The obligation is mandatory. Quashing the order ab initio also removes the sentence and consequential financial orders founded on the conviction. Any sums paid under those orders must be returned. Anonymity granted in related proceedings continues unless the court orders otherwise.

The appellant was convicted in the Crown Court at Leicester of three offences under section 10(3) of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, for breaching the requirements of a Temporary Exclusion Order. He received a suspended sentence order and consequential financial orders. The order was later quashed ab initio in civil proceedings involving the appellant and the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The appellant appealed under Schedule 4 to the Act. The issue was whether the statutory conditions requiring the Court of Appeal to quash the convictions were satisfied.

1. The appeal was allowed and the three convictions were quashed. Schedule 4, paragraph 4(1) of the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 provides that, on an appeal under the Schedule, the court must allow the appeal and quash the conviction.
2. The statutory preconditions were satisfied. There were qualifying convictions for offences under section 10(3), and the Temporary Exclusion Order on which those convictions were based had been quashed ab initio. The appeal was therefore properly brought under paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 4.
3. The court had no discretion to preserve the convictions once those conditions were established. The quashing of the order required the convictions to be quashed because they were for breach of requirements imposed by that order.
4. The suspended sentence order and the consequential surcharge and prosecution-costs orders also fell away because they were founded on the quashed convictions. As the sums had been paid, the appropriate authorities were required to return them to the appellant.
5. The appellant’s anonymity continued in both the appeal and the related civil proceedings. Nothing in the court’s decision altered that protection.

• Crown Court at Leicester: the appellant was convicted on 24 March 2021 and received a suspended sentence order, with surcharge and prosecution-costs orders.
• Administrative Court: in related civil proceedings, the Temporary Exclusion Order was quashed ab initio by consent on 16 June 2025.
• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): on an appeal under Schedule 4 to the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015, the convictions and consequential orders were quashed.