{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-horizon-system-offences-act-2024/section-10",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-horizon-system-offences-act-2024/section-10.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2024/14",
  "legislation_title": "Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/post-office-horizon-system-offences-act-2024",
  "path": "section/10",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "10",
  "heading": "Interpretation",
  "text": "(1) In this Act—\n“caution” means—\n(a) in the case of England and Wales—\n(i) a conditional caution given under section 22 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003,\n(ii) a youth conditional caution given under section 66A of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, or\n(iii) any other caution given to a person in England and Wales in respect of an offence which, at the time the caution is given, the person has admitted;\n(b) in the case of Northern Ireland, any caution (including a restorative caution) given to a person in Northern Ireland in respect of an offence which, at the time the caution is given, the person has admitted;\nand “cautioned” is to be read accordingly;\n“conviction” means—\n(a) a conviction by or before a court, or\n(b) a finding in any criminal proceedings (including a finding linked with a finding of insanity) that a person has committed an offence or done the act or made the omission charged,\nand “convicted” is to be read accordingly;\n“the Horizon system” means any version of the computer system known as Horizon (and sometimes referred to as Legacy Horizon, Horizon Online or HNG-X) used by the Post Office, other than the version referred to as HNG-A;\n“postal services” has the same meaning as in the Postal Services Act 2011 (see section 27 of that Act);\n“the Post Office” means any of the following—\n(a) the Post Office;\n(b) Post Office Limited or Post Office Counters Limited (registered number 02154540);\n(c) Royal Mail Group Limited, Consignia Public Limited Company or Royal Mail Group Plc (registered number 04138203);\n“post office” means any premises or vehicle in England and Wales or Northern Ireland from which postal services are provided (whether alone or with other services) directly to the public;\n“post office business” means the business of providing postal services (whether alone or with other services) from a post office;\n“quashed conviction” means a conviction quashed by section 1(1);\n“relevant offence” has the meaning given by section 2.\n(2) The following provisions (which deem a conviction of a person discharged not to be a conviction) do not apply for the purposes of this Act to a conviction of a person for an offence in respect of which an order has been made discharging the person absolutely or conditionally—\n(a) section 14 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000;\n(b) section 82 of the Sentencing Code;\n(c) Article 6 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (S.I.‌‌ 1996/3160 (N.I. 24)).\n(3) Nothing in this Act affects any power of a court to quash a conviction to which this Act does not apply.",
  "extent": "E+W+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 10 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 11(2)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/14/section/10",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T08:48:17.331942+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."
}