Summary Part 2 - Encouraging or Assisting Crime
4.The Government’s policy on the reform of the criminal law on encouraging and assisting crime is based on the Law Commission’s Report on Inchoate Liability for Assisting and Encouraging Crime (Law Com No. 300, CM 6878, 2006). The Law Commission’s Report did not deal with the position in Northern Ireland.
5.The Act abolishes the common law offence of incitement and in its place creates new offences of intentionally encouraging or assisting crime and encouraging or assisting crime believing that an offence, or one or more offences, will be committed. The Act contains a defence to the offences in Part 2 (where the encouragement or assistance is considered to be reasonable in the circumstances) and an exemption from liability where the offence encouraged or assisted was created in order to protect a category of people (and the person doing the encouragement or assistance falls into that category).