# Defamation Act 2013, Section 16: Consequential amendments and savings etc


(1) Section 8 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (defamation actions) is amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3).
(2) In subsection (3) for “of justification or fair comment or” substitute “ under section 2 or 3 of the Defamation Act 2013 which is available to him or any defence ”.
(3) In subsection (5) for “the defence of justification” substitute “ a defence under section 2 of the Defamation Act 2013 ”.
(4) Nothing in section 1 or 14 affects any cause of action accrued before the commencement of the section in question.
(5) Nothing in sections 2 to 7 or 10 has effect in relation to an action for defamation if the cause of action accrued before the commencement of the section in question.
(6) In determining whether section 8 applies, no account is to be taken of any publication made before the commencement of the section.
(7) Nothing in section 9 or 11 has effect in relation to an action for defamation begun before the commencement of the section in question.
(8) In determining for the purposes of subsection (7)(a) of section 3 whether a person would have a defence under section 4 to any action for defamation, the operation of subsection (5) of this section is to be ignored.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/section/16 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/defamation-act-2013/section-16
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.