{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/sexual-offences-act-2003/section-66H",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/sexual-offences-act-2003/section-66H.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2003/42",
  "legislation_title": "Sexual Offences Act 2003",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/sexual-offences-act-2003",
  "path": "section/66H",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "66H",
  "heading": "Creating, or requesting the creation of, purported intimate image of adult: time limit for prosecution",
  "text": "(1) Notwithstanding section 127(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, a magistrates’ court may try an information or written charge relating to an offence under section 66E or 66F if the information is laid or the charge is issued—\n(a) before the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which the offence was committed, and\n(b) before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which evidence which the prosecutor thinks is sufficient to justify a prosecution comes to the prosecutor’s knowledge.\n(2) A certificate signed by or on behalf of a prosecutor stating the date on which evidence described in subsection (1)(b) came to the prosecutor’s knowledge is conclusive evidence of that fact.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Ss. 66E-66H inserted (6.2.2026) by Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (c. 18), ss. 138(2), 142(1); S.I. 2026/31, reg. 2"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "substituted",
      "affecting": "ukpga/2026/20",
      "affecting_title": "Crime and Policing Act 2026"
    },
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "ukpga/2026/20",
      "affecting_title": "Crime and Policing Act 2026"
    },
    {
      "type": "inserted",
      "affecting": "ukpga/2026/20",
      "affecting_title": "Crime and Policing Act 2026"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/66H",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:17:48.870823+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."
}