# Contempt of Court Act 1981, Paragraph 5

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

Criminal proceedings are concluded—
(a) by acquittal or, as the case may be, by sentence;
(b) by any other verdict, finding, order or decision which puts an end to the proceedings;
(c) by discontinuance or by operation of law;
(d) where the initial steps of the proceedings are as mentioned in paragraph 4(f)—
(i) by refusal of the application;
(ii) if the application is granted and within the period of 2 months mentioned in section 6(3) of the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 (asp 16) a new prosecution is brought, by acquittal or, as the case may be, by sentence in the new prosecution.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/49/schedule/1/paragraph/5 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/contempt-of-court-act-1981/schedule-1/paragraph-5
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.