Useful Notes / British Laws

Some quick notes about British laws:

• It is now illegal to smoke in an enclosed public place, bar some minor exceptions for stage performances. Vaping currently falls outside this law, though some establishments still ban it as it is easy to mistake for actual smoking and it's easier for staff not to have to make judgement calls.
• The age to buy alcohol is 18.
  • It is legal to consume alcohol in a pub/bar/restaurent with a meal at 16, but it must be bought by someone at least 18. Only wine or beer, though, no spirits. And it's at the premises' discretion; they're legally allowed to refuse alcohol to 16-to-18-year-olds - actually, all selling of alcohol is at the premises' discretion, so someone can refuse to sell you alcohol even if you're clearly over 18 because they think you're already too drunk, or they`re not convinced you're actually old enough (even if you've shown them ID, it might not be real, or yours, after all) which avoids issues if they don't believe what you say your age is.
  • The legal age to consume alcohol is 5 (you read that correctly), in private with parental supervision. This reflects actual British habits, as it's not considered harmful to give children small amounts of alcohol (not enough for the kid to get drunk on, of course) on certain occasions (particularly Christmas) - we don’t have the "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" mindset here. Below that age, a doctor has to decide that it would be a good idea for some medical reason (rarely invoked, obviously).
  • Note that carrying an opened container of alcohol in a public place is an offence under various city bye-laws. Check if it applies to you. Normally the worst that will happen is the nice police officer will confiscate your stuff, but if you are egregiously drunk or try to push the point, you may end up spending a night in the cells. On a related note, we also don’t have "open container" laws in vehicles - if you’re driving and your (over 18) passengers are knocking back beers the police might pull you over, but only to check the driver isn’t/hasn’t partaken. While it wouldn’t be smart or prudent, even the driver can drink alcohol behind the wheel as long as they don’t impair their driving or drink enough to go over the limit though this isn’t recommended - it’s best to abstain completely if you’re driving.
• The age to get married is 16 with parental permission, 18 without (except in Scotland, where it's 16 with or without parental consent).
  • In UK works you may expect to run across references of teenage lovers eloping to get married in Gretna. Historically this was the first town you'd come to across the Scottish border and therefore seen as a quick place to get married in. As such it has accrued a bit of a romantic reputation and now has a sizable waiting list for marriages. Still, you can pass your time at the giant outlet mall near the motorway. Gay marriage has been legal for longer in England and Wales than in Scotland, so the reverse was true for gay couples until the Scottish legalisation went into effect on 31 December 2014.
  • Whilst England, Scotland and Wales legalised gay marriage in 2014, Northern Ireland did not do so until 2020 - and this was only because the Westminster government had voted it through, due to the failure of a Northern Irish Assembly being formed after an inconclusive election in 2017. Before then, gay marriages performed elsewhere in the UK were treated as civil partnerships there. The status of gay marriages performed in the Republic of Ireland (legal starting 2015 under the Thirty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the State) is pending, but are likely to receive the same treatment.^note Note that pursuant to the vote in the Republic, there has been discussion of legalising same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. The issue is that although proponents of the move have a slim but distinct majority in the public at large, the Democratic Unionist Party, which is staunchly opposed to the measure, holds a majority of the seats held by "Designated Unionist" parties, and such a measure would require "cross-community support"—i.e. a majority of seats held by both Designated Nationalist and Designated Unionist parties—and thus it's not happening in NI anytime soon. Probably.
• The age of sexual consent is 16. If a person older than that has sex with someone below it, it is now rape of a young child (distinct from and more harshly punished than rape) if the younger partner is under 13 or sexual activity with a minor (if they're between 13 and 16; this carries a lesser punishment). Until recently, the age for male homosexuality was 18 (and before that, 21), and the age for female homosexuality was non-existent, as it had never been banned. They're now both set at 16. Note there are exceptions for people in positions of authority over younger people to prevent exploitation - the age of consent for these is 18. Even if it’s legal, it’s highly likely to be against the person in authority’s terms of employment - if a university lecturer (equivalent to a US college professor) had a relationship with a student, they’d most likely be out of a job if discovered regardless.
  • There are no "Romio and Juliet" laws. Instead, the law regarding sex between two minors is an "unenforced law". This means whilst it is technically a crime for two minors to have sex with each other, there will be no legal action taken against any of the kids, providing there are no "aggravating factors", such as coercion or if one partner is significantly older than the other. So, if a 15-year-old boy has sex with his younger girlfriend, he would technically be breaking the law (and so would the girl), but if she was a similar age and consented, he would be safe from prosecution (as would she). However, if he was coercing her into having sex, or if she was under 13, then that boy would get prosecuted (but not the girl, as she was the victim).
• Same-sex civil partnerships are legal ^note  The establishment of civil partnerships gives us an excellent insight into the British character. Some people didn't like it, many more said it couldn't be the same as a marriage. So the government created the term "civil partners" and said on no account was anyone in officialdom to consider civil partnerships as marriages and the terms were not interchangeable (however, the two offer the exact same sets of rights and responsibilities). As soon as the UK population were told not call CPs marriages, everyone did, the average Brit being determined to be Bloody Minded to the last.
• Age to buy and appear in porn is now 18 (2003 Sexual Offences Act). This leads to the anomaly that it's legal for two 16 year olds to have sex, but illegal for them to record themselves doing so.
• Cigarette purchase age was recently changed from 16 to 18.
• Abortion is legal up until 24 weeks if two doctors are satisfied that continuing the pregnancy risks injury to the physical/mental health of the woman (Section C of the Abortion Act) or existing children of the woman (Section D), effectively meaning that anybody determined to have one can. After that, it's the doctor's call.
  • This is a "conscience issue" in Parliament—MPs will not get told by their parties how to vote on this.
  • This is also a conscience issue for doctors; no doctor has sign off on or carry out an abortion if it conflicts with their own beliefs but in this case they are legally obliged to refer the patient on to a doctor who will and also legally obliged to make sure that this delays the process as little as possible.
  • Abortion was illegal in Stroke Country until 2020 (in the same manner that legalised gay marriage there) and in the Republic of Ireland (unless the Mother's life is threatened) until 2018, but it was not illegal for people in either part of Ireland seeking abortions to travel to Britain to have one for free on the NHS. After a case in Ireland where pro-life doctors refused to allow a young Indian woman an abortion even though it was clear she would die without it, this may soon change for the Republic.^note  There is some dispute as to whether an abortion would have saved her. Let us continue this discussion no further than that.
• It's not illegal to jaywalk. Many Brits find the idea it might be baffling. Even if crossing lights say "Don't Walk" you can happily cross if you can see the way is clear. This applies to all roads except Dual Carriageways and Motorways. Unlike the US pedestrians do not have right of way at crossings or junctions.^note Pedestrians do have right of way when crossing side roads against vehicles turning into them but use common sense and make sure the driver has seen you and is stopping. The standard procedure when crossing a side road with traffic waiting to exit it is to cross immediately behind the first vehicle so as to not impede their ability to pull out into a small gap. Many an American tourist in London has had a shock when they expect traffic to stop for them.
• It's illegal to be naked in public when it causes distress in a public place (your back garden probably wouldn't count). Nudity is legal on a handful of public beaches.
• Cannabis remains illegal, although there is some confusion among the public and the police guidelines will mean that officers will simply confiscate small amounts or hand out a fixed penalty notice.
  • Cannabis was originally classed with barbiturates in Class B; it was demoted to Class C a couple of years ago to join drugs such as Valium. However, the government has announced it will be returning to Class B (against the advice of their scientific advisory body) due to an increase in the strength of the commonly-available material.
  • Also related to the previous government's obsession with targets - arrest one person for possession? That's a single crime detection. Warn the whole group he's with (which couldn't be made to stick if arrests were made)? That's one detection for every person in the group.
• Incitement to racial hatred is a criminal offence. Any criminal act that is racially motivated or homophobic will get an increased sentence. Attempts to bring in similar laws for "religious hatred" failed due to concerns over stifling legitimate debate. Similarly, Rowan Atkinson led a campaign to remove a vaguely worded provision against "insulting" language, which it was feared would lead to an even worse stifling.
• Gun laws have become increasing strict in recent decades:
  • Since 1988, it has been illegal for civilians to own semi-automatic rifles of greater than .22 calibre, and shotguns with a magazine or multi-barrel capacity of more than two shells.^note This was in response to the Hungerford Massacre, a spree killing in which sixteen people were killed and fifteen others injured by a perpetrator armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a pistol.
  • The possession of handguns by civilians has been illegal since 1998.^note This was in response to the Dunblane Massacre, a school shooting in which sixteen young children and a teacher were killed and fifteen injured by someone armed with four handguns.
    • Except in Northern Ireland.
  • Shotguns with a legal shell capacity require a licence. The licence is a right and it is up to Police to have a reason NOT to issue one. Getting a licence for a legal rifle requires a "good reason" and it is up to you to show why you should have it. A licence can be issued for specific uses in specific areas, ie "To shoot rabbit on Warren Farm" and you can then only use the weapon for that specific use and no other. (it explicitly cannot be for self-defence, excepted in Northern Ireland, but there is no lower age limit.
  • Carrying "realistic-looking replica firearms" openly in public is illegal. (Airsoft weapons should be stored in a case, unloaded.) Since the passing of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, the sale of such is also illegal barring a few specific defences.
  • However there are no restrictions on purchasing and wearing bullet resistant armour though this is highly unusual outside military and police contexts.
• Carrying a knife in public is illegal, unless it meets very specific criteria (the blade must be under 3" and not fixed or automatic (i.e. it must fold out of the handle by being pulled on by the user)) and cannot "lock" into place, unless the owner can prove they have a good reason for carrying it (e.g. their job, or they have just bought it from a store and are bringing it home). Until recently any bladed instrument could be owned on private property except for butterfly knives. The sale, import and export of curved (read: replica samurai) swords is now illegal, excepting traditionally manufactured and martial arts swords. Also, you have to be 18 to buy all forms of blades, including butter knives, paper knives and safety scissors, leading to the odd situation of University students without ID being prevented from buying cutlery for their first year away from home.
  • Similar to bullet resistant armour, there are no restrictions on purchasing and wearing stab resistant armour, though again this is highly unusual outside military and police contexts.
• Pepper spray, mace, tasers and similar self defence items are also illegal in the UK. You are not allowed to carry anything that is designed as a weapon to defend yourself. However you can use improvised weapons made of things you can plausibly normally carry - such as umbrellas, keys, walking sticks, etc.
• Exceptions to all weapon laws are made with regards to antiques.
• Self-defence laws cover violent crimes, but not sexual crimes. Calm down! This does NOT mean "A woman who can't escape from a rapist is doomed to choose between getting raped or going to prison". If a man is physically restraining a woman and forcing her to submit to sex, that counts as a violent offence and the women CAN fight the rapist off. All the exception means is that you can't seriously injure or kill someone for simply being a pervert. That being said, self-defence does cover battery (unwanted touching), meaning a woman can slap a man for non-consensual kissing/touching, she just can't beat him to a pulp for it.
• It is illegal to watch broadcast television without a licence. The BBC does not run adverts and is instead funded by these licence fees.
  • The BBC may not run adverts, and can not make or fund any show with product placement, nor can they show 3rd party shows with obvious product placement, however commercial offshoots (Like BBC America) can show product placement with some limitations.
  • Furthermore, all "public service broadcasters" (i.e, all of them) are mandated by law to be impartial in all things. Thus, shows like The Daily Show or The O Reilly Factor could not be made in Britain, as their hosts offer blatantly partisan comment (though British people can still watch them if they can pick them up). Political debate is supplied by shows such as Newsnight and Question Time, where politicians of each of the "main" parties are invited on to debate/be grilled by the hosts. This only extends so far - it is at the BBC's discretion which views they may deem "discredited" and thus ignore^note So, for example, a program condemning racism is not required to give equal time to racists.. This sometimes causes controversy, such as a recent BBC decision to "review" whether or not the view that "global warming is not occurring/man-made" should still be considered a valid viewpoint.
• Age to get a driving license for a car is 17; 16 for mopeds or small agricultural tractors. A driving license is not required on private land.
• As a general rule, cars keep the same registration number from showroom to scrapyard. Vintage cars lacking the original number are worth substantially less than those that do. Number plates are bought from third-party suppliers rather than supplied by the registration authority. If you are a vain twit^note For American readers, British vanity plates cost about ten times as much as most American ones, so only the most attention-hungry Upper Class Twits get them. then you can get a personalized numberplate. There are various rules on what it may say - for instance, S4M would be allowed by P3N15 would not.
• If you design to/attempt to/deliberately kill the Sovereign, any of their family, then you must be tried for treason, not murder or manslaughter (neither of these verdicts, in fact, are available to the court). Duress and marital coercion are not defenses. If it was by accident then manslaughter and negligent homicide are available. The Treason Act 1495 provides that in a civil war between two claimants to the throne, those who fight for the losing side cannot be held guilty of a crime merely for fighting against the winner; this Act was passed by Parliament about ten years into Henry VII's reign, largely because he had done exactly that, hanging Richard III's supporters as traitors, by backdating his reign to the day before the Battle of Bosworth Field, and Parliament was still rather ticked off at the abuse of power. (Henry let them pass the statute because by that point he was secure enough on the throne to indulge Parliament’s wishes.)
• Despite the UK's reputation for its lenient justice system, compared to the USA, it actually has much stricter attitude towards manslaughter. (The irony being in that a deliberate murder will see you get a lesser sentence then in the USA, whilst an Accidental Murder will see you get a harsher sentence in the UK).
  • A good example is if you accidentally kill someone with your car. In the US, you will only go to prison if there was any overt recklessness, such as drunk driving or excess speeding. Meanwhile ANY form of careless driving (like driving on the wrong side of the road), can land you in prison if it results in death. This difference in law has recently caused trouble between the US and UK, where an American diplomat, Anne Sacoolas, accidently killed a UK citizen by driving on the wrong side of the road, only to invoke her Diplomatic Immunity to flee the country. Despite this, the US have refused to send her back for prosecution due to fear of (what they see as) disproportionate sentencing for an honest mistake.
• Truancy is considered a crime for parents rather than the children. This means parents can go (and have gone) to prison (for about 6 months) for their child skipping school. ^note  unlike if it was a crime for the child, which wouldn't have a prison sentence due to its nature as a "status crime" Whilst parents only go to prison as a last resort, after many fair warnings, it is still considered a rather controversial move.

Oh, and one fundamental thing: Britain—specifically England—is the origin of The Common Law and remains a common-law jurisdiction. Thus, unlike on the continent, justice is based heavily on precedent. In other words, if there exists an old case that is substantially similar to the case being decided on, then the ruling in the old case will be followed. Hence, a judge's final ruling for a case will be essentially a law that will bind all later substantially similar cases, unless a decision to overrule (which is rare, and only made by Supreme Court, or in previous eras the House of Lords) is made later. That's why in lawyer movies / TV series, lawyers may have to look up century-old cases for possible precedent which might be helpful for their current case, though mostly for better understanding as the laws created by those cases are readily documented in any references (unless it's so obscure or obsolete like the laws shown below).

It is important to note, however, that the law system in Scotland is very different from the rest of the UK. While laws passed by parliament (e.g. age restrictions and weapon laws) still come into effect, as a result of devolution, the Scottish parliament now passes laws of its own, and some new laws in the UK parliament do not apply. The system of courts and the legal basis for them is also different, and precedent is not as important in determining the law and the High Court of Justiciary (Scotland's highest criminal court) has limited declaratory powers. Even before devolution Scotland had a separate Common Law (Scots Law), as a result of its separate judiciary; unlike the English common law, Scots Law is heavily influenced by the Roman Civil Law (transmitted by French law professors before The House of Stuart inherited the English Crown, thanks to the Auld Alliance).

The law in Scotland also differs in that there are three outcomes possible in court: Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven. Not Proven is pretty unique to Scotland and means exactly the same as "not guilty". However, juries have begun applying it to mean that the court pretty much knows that the defendant has committed a crime, they can't actually prove it. The Scottish law system is sufficiently different to the English system that any lawyer wishing to transfer from one to the other is required to complete a one-year transition course.

The old Dumb Laws section

Britain has a fine tradition of unabolished weird laws. None of these are apocryphal. Among the most famous are:

• All men over the age of 14 are required to train with a longbow for two hours every Sunday.
• If you meet a Welshman within the city walls of Coventry after dark, it is legal to shoot him with a crossbow. There are multiple variations of this in various cities. They generally involve criteria such as:
  1. The victim being Welsh or Scottish; which tends to depend which border is nearer.
  2. It being (or not) a Sunday or under certain circumstances on a Sunday.
  3. Some specified weapon, usually a bow or crossbow.
  4. Being within the city limits or a specific area of the city.

IMPORTANT! Keep reading until you get to the bottom of this page.

• Contrary to popular belief, the infamous "Suicide is punished by hanging" law has been repealed for some time.
• Several Christmas pastimes (such as eating mince pies on December 25th) are technically illegal due to the efforts of Oliver Cromwell to cancel Christmas after he won the Civil War.
• Up until the late Nineties, there were still three crimes which carried the death penalty, even though the death penalty itself had been abolished for most crimes thirty years before. These were treason, piracy on the high seas, and arson in HM shipyards. The last provision is a relic of when Britain's navy was made of wooden ships and so starting a fire in HM dockyards could potentially cripple British military strength. Sort of the equivalent to setting off a fission bomb in Pearl Harbor. The arson in HM shipyards was demoted as separate incrimination in 1971, and folded in the general crime of arson.
• Scotland has several old, never abolished laws, specific to the area, for example:
  • It is illegal to be drunk and in "control" of a cow. Though this law did actually make a lot of sense when it was passed, as farmers would go to town centres on market day, get sloshed, and then have to drive their unsold livestock back to their farms, except they were now woefully incapable of doing so. The chaos this created makes the law seem rather clever, in hindsight.
  • In the city of Glasgow it is illegal to tie your goat to a lamppost.
• Notably, while male homosexuality was illegal in Britain until the latter half of the 20th Century, lesbianism was not outlawed because (so legend has it) Queen Victoria refused to believe women would actually do such things and persuaded the Prime Minister of the time to remove references to it from the Act. In truth, as a constitutional monarch, the Queen did not have the power to overrule parliament. Had she tried, there would have been political uproar. There is belief, however, that parliament themselves omitted lesbianism in case including it gave women ideas.
• It is illegal to resign from the House of Commons. However, an MP who accepts an "office of profit under the Crown"—that is to say, a paid position in the executive or judiciary of the UK—must immediately stand to be re-elected to Parliament from their constituency in a special by-election or else be disqualified from Parliament. However, positions in the Cabinet and most other executive positions with a Crown salary are exempt from this rule (to spare the expense and annoyance of having to run by-elections for nearly the entire Government as soon as it is formed). Thus in order to resign from Parliament, MPs resort to a legal fiction whereby they're appointed to an office of profit under the Crown that is not exempted (usually either Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, non-jobs with pittance salaries^note The physical Manor of Northstead hasn't existed since 1600 when the building collapsed, but the office of Steward and Bailiff was never abolished.), immediately disqualifying them from serving in Parliament unless they stand again (which, with one notable exception, has not happened since the exemptions were established). The reasons for these provisions are that originally, election to the House of Commons was seen as an often-inconvenient duty (particularly since until 1911 it came with no salary of its own) rather than a position of power, while the frequent conflicts that Parliament had with various monarchs left them wary of the prospect of a King buying the loyalty of MPs.

All of these laws (except for the rules about resignation from Parliament, which now largely consists of loopholes large enough to sail a Queen Elizabeth-class carrier through), are now no longer on the books however, as in the 90s a bill was passed in Westminster striking all bylaws and laws over a certain age (made possible by the fact that Sir Robert Peel amalgamated most of the sensible laws into a few, easier to access, acts known as the Peel's Acts) from the books, requiring them to be re-passed. All the old and daft bylaws are gone. Hopefully, you read to the end before you killed any Welshmen.

A webpage document which of these dumb laws is legit.

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