Outline

The Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2002 amends the Criminal Code 2001 (the Code) to delay its commencement pending the incorporation of further principles of criminal responsibility into the Code. At present, the Code contains only some of the principles of criminal responsibility and cannot operate effectively until the remaining principles have been included, which will occur later this year. The amendment to the Code in Part 3 of the Bill will delay the Code’s commencement from 10 March 2002 until 1 January 2003.

Financial Implications

The Bill is not expected to have any financial implications.

Notes on Clauses

Part 1 Preliminary

Clause 1 Name of Act

Upon enactment, the Act will be known as the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2002.

Clause 2 Commencement

The proposed Act will be taken to commence on 9 March 2002. This date has been specified to ensure that the amendments have legal effect before the commencement of the Criminal Code 2001, which is due to commence on 10 March 2002.

Clause 3 Act amended

The Act to be amended is the Criminal Code 2001.

Clause 4 Section 2

This clause delays the commencement of the Criminal Code 2001 until

1 January 2003. As noted previously, the purpose of the delay is to provide enough time to make further necessary amendments to the Criminal Code 2001 before it comes into effect. It is anticipated that those amendments will be introduced within the next three months.