Repealing of the False Oaths (Scotland) Act 1933: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Information requested
You asked why the False Oaths (Scotland) Act 1933 was repealed in 2011 and whether making a false oath is dealt with as a criminal offence or a common law offence.
Response
The False Oaths (Scotland) Act 1933 ("the 1933 Act") was repealed by Paragraph 3 of Schedule 7 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, which came into effect in March 2011.
Paragraphs 576-579 of the Policy Memorandum which accompanied the Bill at introduction set out the reasons for repealing the 1933 Act. I have enclosed a copy of the Policy Memorandum with this reply. That document refers to the earlier consultation document 'Revitalising Justice: Proposals to Modernise and Improve the Criminal Justice System' which was published in 2008. Pages 24 and 25 of that document contain information on the proposal to repeal the 1933 Act and I have enclosed a copy of that document.
As set out in those documents, the offences that were previously contained in the 1933 Act were consolidated into the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995. Sections 44-46 of that Act contain the current offence concerning the making of false oaths: Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995
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