CJS Offence Code
1 November 2021
A code to represent an offence (where the offence is used in the generic sense covering the reasons for bringing a court case against a defendant).
AAYYNNN or COML NNN or XX00 NNN (all with an optional eighth character (A) to qualify an Offence Code as an offence of either attempting aiding and abetting conspiring or inciting to commit an offence).
Note also that the quote marks are not part of the validation but are used here to show literal content (e.g. MD71101 [Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 class B drug (cannabis)]) where:
AA is a code identifying an Act or other source (e.g. MD) YY is the year of the Act etc (e.g. 71)
NNN is a three-digit number with leading zeroes as required identifying an Offence Reason within the Act etc. (e.g. 101) not necessarily inferring 101 or more offences within the act in the example given.
If the optional eighth character(A) is present then it must be one of the four following codes:
A attempting
B aiding and abetting
C conspiring
I inciting
Or where:
COML is a literal to denote common laws followed by NNNA as above.
Or where:
XX00 is a literal to denote an indictment rather than a charge followed by NNNA as above.