(1)This Part applies where a person has been acquitted of a qualifying offence in proceedings—
(a)on indictment in England and Wales,
(b)on appeal against a conviction, verdict or finding in proceedings on indictment in England and Wales, or
(c)on appeal from a decision on such an appeal.
(2)A person acquitted of an offence in proceedings mentioned in subsection (1) is treated for the purposes of that subsection as also acquitted of any qualifying offence of which he could have been convicted in the proceedings because of the first-mentioned offence being charged in the indictment, except an offence—
(a)of which he has been convicted,
(b)of which he has been found not guilty by reason of insanity, or
(c)in respect of which, in proceedings where he has been found to be under a disability (as defined by section 4 of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 (c. 84)), a finding has been made that he did the act or made the omission charged against him.
(3)References in subsections (1) and (2) to a qualifying offence do not include references to an offence which, at the time of the acquittal, was the subject of an order under section 77(1) or (3).
(4)This Part also applies where a person has been acquitted, in proceedings elsewhere than in the United Kingdom, of an offence under the law of the place where the proceedings were held, if the commission of the offence as alleged would have amounted to or included the commission (in the United Kingdom or elsewhere) of a qualifying offence.
(5)Conduct punishable under the law in force elsewhere than in the United Kingdom is an offence under that law for the purposes of subsection (4), however it is described in that law.
(6)This Part applies whether the acquittal was before or after the passing of this Act.
(7)References in this Part to acquittal are to acquittal in circumstances within subsection (1) or (4).
(8) In this Part “qualifying offence” means an offence listed in Part 1 of Schedule 5.
310.Section 75 sets out the cases which may be retried under the exception to the normal rule against double jeopardy. These cases all involve serious offences which in the main carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and which are considered to have a particularly serious impact either on the victim or on society more generally. The offences to which the provisions apply are called “qualifying offences”, and are listed in Schedule 5 to the Act.
311.The cases which may be re-tried are those in which a person has been acquitted of one of the qualifying offences, either on indictment or following an appeal, or of a lesser qualifying offence of which he could have been convicted at that time. This takes into account cases of “implied acquittals”, in which, under the current law, an acquittal would have prevented a further prosecution being brought for a lower level offence on the same facts. For example, an acquittal for murder may also imply an acquittal for the lower level offence of manslaughter, but new evidence may then come to light which would support a charge of manslaughter. A person may only be re-tried in respect of a qualifying offence.
312.In certain circumstances cases may also be tried where an acquittal for an offence has taken place abroad, so long as the alleged offence also amounted to a qualifying offence and could have been charged as such in the UK. This would include for example offences such as War Crimes, and murder committed outside the UK, for which the courts in England and Wales have jurisdiction over British citizens abroad. Such cases are likely to be rare. Subsection (5) recognises that offences may not be described in exactly the same way in the legislation of other jurisdictions.
313.The law in Scotland is not being changed in this respect at present, so this Part of the Act is not applied to acquittals which take place in Scotland.