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Forgery Act 1861

The Forgery Act 1861 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to forgery from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Forgery Act 1830, incorporating subsequent statutes.

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Forgery Act 1861a
Act of Parliament
coat of arms
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England and Ireland relating to indictable Offences by Forgery.
Citation24 & 25 Vict. c. 98
Territorial extent 
b
Dates
Royal assent6 August 1861
Commencement1 November 1861c
Other legislation
Amended by
Relates to
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the Forgery Act 1861 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Forgery Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 98) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to forgery from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the act,1 incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Forgery Act 1830 (11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4 c.66) (and the equivalent Irish act), incorporating subsequent statutes.2

Most of it was repealed by the Forgery Act 1913, and today forgery is mostly covered by the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 and the Identity Documents Act 2010. However three offences under the 1861 act remain in force today (in sections 34, 36 and 37). These deal with forgery of registers of births, marriages and deaths, and with impersonation of a surety.

Certain kinds of forgery used to be high treason until this act downgraded them to felonies.

The act does not apply to Scotland.3

Subsequent developments

The whole act, except sections 34, 36, 37 and 55, was repealed for England and Wales and Northern Ireland by section 30 of, and part I of the schedule to, the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which came into force on 27 October 1981.4

The whole act was repealed for the Republic of Ireland by section 3(1) of, and schedule 1 to, the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, which came into force on 1 August 2002.5

See also

See also

Notes

Notes

  1. The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Short Titles Act 1896. Due to the repeal of those provisions, it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
  2. Section 55.
  3. Section 56.
References

References

  1. Greaves. The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts (1861) pp. 3-4
  2. Davis, James Edward (1861). The Criminal Law Consolidation Statutes of the 24 & 25 of Victoria. Butterworths. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
  3. "Forgery Act 1861", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1947 c. 98
  4. "Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1981 c. 45
  5. Book (eISB), electronic Irish Statute. "electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB)". www.irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 21 June 2026.
External links