{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-act-1953-repealed/section-58",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-act-1953-repealed/section-58.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/36",
  "legislation_title": "Post Office Act 1953 (repealed)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-act-1953-repealed",
  "path": "section/58",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "58",
  "heading": "Opening or delaying of postal packets by officers of the Post Office.",
  "text": "(1) If any person engaged in the business of the Post Office, contrary to his duty, opens, or procures or suffers to be opened, any postal packet in course of transmission by post, or wilfully detains or delays, or procures or suffers to be detained or delayed, any such postal packet, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or to both:\nProvided that nothing in this section shall extend to the opening, detaining or delaying of a postal packet returned for want of a true direction, or returned by reason that the person to whom it is directed has refused it, or has refused or neglected to pay the postage thereof, or that the packet cannot for any other reason be delivered, or to the opening, detaining or delaying of a postal packet under the authority of this Act or in obedience to a warrant issued by the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers under section 2 of the Interception of Communications Act 1985or under the authority of an interception warrant under section 5 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.\n(2) In the application of the foregoing subsection to . . . the Isle of Man, for the reference to a warrant issued by the Secretary of State under section 2 of the Interception of Communications Act 1985there shall be substituted a reference to a warrant in writing under the hand of the Lieutenant-Governor issued with the sanction of a Secretary of State.",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words substituted by virtue of Post Office Act 1969 (c. 48), Sch. 4 para. 2(1)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words inserted by Theft Act 1968 (c. 60), Sch. 2 Pt. I para. 6"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words substituted by Interception of Communications Act 1985 (c. 56, SIF 96), s. 11(2)(a)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in s. 58 inserted (1.7.1999) by S.I. 1999/1750, arts. 1(1), 6(1), Sch. 5 para. 1; S.I. 1998/3178"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F5",
      "text": "Words in s. 58(1) inserted (2.10.2000) by 2000 c. 23, s. 82(1), Sch. 4 para. 1; S.I. 2000/2543, art. 3"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F6",
      "text": "Words repealed by S.I. 1973/2163, Sch. 6"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C1",
      "text": "S. 58 amended as to mode of trial (E.W.) by Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c. 43, SIF 82), s. 17, Sch. 1 para. 22"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C2",
      "text": "S. 58 amended by S.I. 1981/1675, (N.I. 26), Sch. 2 para. 8"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C3",
      "text": "S. 53 amended as to mode of trial by S.I. 1981/1675 (N.I. 26), arts. 45(1), 46(3) (as substituted by S.I. 1986/1883 (N.I. 15), art. 3(2), Sch. 2"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/36/section/58",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:16:39.685380+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}