The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 94) is a mainly repealed Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated statutory English criminal law related to accomplices, including many classes of encouragers (inciters). Mainly its offences were, according to the draftsman of the Act, replacement enactments with little or no variation in 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 collected the relevant parts of Peel's Acts (and the equivalent Irish Acts) and others.

Provisions still in force

The Act provides that an accessory to an indictable offence shall be treated in the same way as if he had committed the offence: Section 8 of the Act, as amended, reads: "Whosoever shall aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of any indictable offence, whether the same be an offence at common law or by virtue of any Act passed or to be passed, shall be liable to be tried, indicted, and punished as a principal offender." Section 10 states that the Act does not apply to Scotland. The active section thus applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The rest of the Act was repealed by the Criminal Law Act 1967 to make easier the abolition of the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours; (see below).

Case law

In AG's Reference (No 1 of 1975) (1975) QB 773, Lord Chief Justice Widgery stated that the words in section 8 should be given their ordinary meaning.

Summary offences

The Act does not apply to summary offences, but section 44(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 is to the like effect: "A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the commission by another person of a summary offence shall be guilty of the like offence..."

Repeals

Sections 1 to 7 and 9 of this Act were repealed for England and Wales by section 10(2) of, and Part III of Schedule 3 to, the Criminal Law Act 1967. They were repealed for Northern Ireland by section 15(2) of, and Part II of Schedule 2 to, the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967. Section 11 was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1892.