Law Commission Supplementary Consultation on contempt of court

Overview

We are conducting a review of the law on contempt of court and considering the need for reform to improve its effectiveness, consistency, and coherence. Our objective is to produce a law of contempt that is easier to understand, fairer, and that better protects the administration of justice.

This is a public supplementary consultation by the Law Commission for England and Wales.

The topic of this supplementary consultation is contempt of court. It supplements our public consultation on contempt of court that ran from 9 July 2024 to 29 November 2024. This supplementary consultation paper includes only two substantive questions, both of which were included in our 2024 consultation paper on contempt of court (No 262). This supplementary consultation provides a further opportunity for consultees to respond to narrow issues concerning liability for contempt by publication when criminal proceedings are active and possible defences to liability.

For more information about this project, including details about the current supplementary consultation and the 2024 consultation, see our project webpage. Please note that the supplementary consultation is active but the 2024 consultation has closed.

About the Law Commission

The Law Commission is a statutory body, created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 (“the 1965 Act”) for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law. It is an advisory Non Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The Law Commission is independent of Government. For more information about the Law Commission, please see the Law Commission website.

Responding to this supplementary consultation

We recommend that consultees read the supplementary consultation paper before responding. The supplementary consultation paper includes important information on what evidence we are able to accept. Consultees do not need to answer all the questions if they are only interested in some aspects of the supplementary consultation paper.

To submit your responses online, please click link below to “go to questions”. Once you press submit, you will receive a confirmation notice and will have the option to download a pdf version of your response.

Alternatively, you can complete the “Response Form” available on our project webpage and submit it to us by email: contempt-of-court@lawcommission.gov.uk

How we handle responses to this supplementary consultation

We aim to be transparent in our decision-making, and to explain the basis on which we have reached conclusions. We may publish or disclose information you provide us in response to Law Commission papers, including personal information. For example, we may publish an extract of your response in Law Commission publications, or publish the response itself. We may also share responses with Government. Additionally, we may be required to disclose the information, such as in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We will process your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

Responses are most effective where we are able to report who responded to us, and what they said. If you consider that it is necessary for all or some of the information that you provide to be treated as confidential and so neither published nor disclosed, please contact us before sending it. Please limit the confidential material to the minimum, clearly identify it and explain why you want it to be confidential. We cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances and an automatic disclaimer generated by your IT system will not be regarded as binding on the Law Commission. 

Alternatively, you may want your response to be anonymous. That means that we may refer to what you say in your response, but will not reveal that the information came from you. You might want your response to be anonymous because it contains sensitive information about you or your family, or because you are worried about other people knowing what you have said to us. 

We list all those who responded to our consultations in our reports. If you provide a confidential response your name will appear in that list. If your response is anonymous we will not include your name in the list unless you have given us permission to do so.

For more information on how we consult and how we may use responses to the supplementary consultation, please see page ii of the supplementary consultation paper. For information about how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy notice.

Contacting the Law Commission

Any queries can be directed to contempt-of-court@lawcommission.gov.uk

As part of our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion, our policy is to use gender-neutral language in our work and correspondence. Using gender-neutral language promotes gender equality and challenges prejudicial assumptions and gender stereotypes.

The Law Commission encourages correspondents to retire the greeting “Dear Sir(s)” and instead address correspondence to the relevant Commissioner or specific project teams. Alternatively, correspondents may wish to use a more generic inclusive greeting such as “To whom it may concern”, “Dear colleague(s)”, “Dear Commissioner” or “Dear Law Commission.

As a consultative body, we will continue to treat all correspondence equally regardless of how it is addressed.