# Malicious Communications Act 1988

* related portals: Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
* sister projects: Wikipedia article, Wikidata item
Date of Commencement: 29 July 1988 (Except s. 1) (S.I. 1986/2041) Date of Commencement: 29 September 1988 ( s. 1) (s. 3(2)) See this legislation with any revisons at legislation.gov.uk .
Sections 1(1)(a)(ii) to 1(1)(a)(iii) repealed by s. 189(2) of the Online Safety Act 2023 (c. 50) with effect from 31 January 2024 (S.I. 2024/31).
For corresponding provisions effective in Northern Ireland, see the Malicious Communications (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 (S.I. 1988/1849 (N.I. 18))
Layout 2
Malicious Communications Act 1988
1988 CHAPTER 27
An Act to make provision for the punishment of persons who send or deliver letters or other articles for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety.[29th July 1988]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Offence of sending letters etc. with intent to cause distress or anxiety. 1.—(1) Any person who sends to another person—
    (a) a letter or other article which conveys—
       (i) a message which is indecent or grossly offensive;
       (ii) a threat; or
       (iii) information which is false and known or believed to be false by the sender; or
    (b) any other article which is, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature,
is guilty of an offence if his purpose, or one of his purposes, in sending it is that it should, so far as falling within paragraph (a) or (b) above, cause distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intends that it or its contents or nature should be communicated.
(2) A person is not guilty of an offence by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(ii) above if he shows—
    (a) that the threat was used to reinforce a demand which he believed he had reasonable grounds for making; and
    (b) that he believed that the use of the threat was a proper means of reinforcing the demand.
(3) In this section references to sending include references to delivering and to causing to be sent or delivered and “sender” shall be construed accordingly.
​(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.
Northern Ireland. 1974 c. 28. 2. An Order in Council under paragraph 1(1)(b) of Schedule 1 to the Northern Ireland Act 1974 (legislation for Northern Ireland in the interim period) which states that it is made only for purposes corresponding to those of this Act—
    (a) shall not be subject to paragraph 1(4) and (5) of that Schedule (affirmative resolution of both Houses of Parliament); but
    (b) shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House.
Short title, commencement and extent. 3.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
(2) Section 1 above shall not come into force until the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed.
(3) This Act does not extend to Scotland or, except for section 2, to Northern Ireland.
This work is licensed under the United Kingdom Open Government Licence v1.0.
    You are free to:
   * copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information;
   * adapt the Information;
   * exploit the Information commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application.
    You must, where you do any of the above:
   * acknowledge the source of the Information by including any attribution statement specified by the Information Provider(s) and, where possible, provide a link to this licence;
   * If the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement, you must use the following:
    Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.
   * ensure that you do not use the Information in a way that suggests any official status or that the Information Provider endorses you or your use of the Information;
   * ensure that you do not mislead others or misrepresent the Information or its source;
   * ensure that your use of the Information does not breach the Data Protection Act 1998 or the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
    This license does NOT cover:
   * personal data in the Information;
   * Information that has not been accessed by way of publication or disclosure under information access legislation (including the Freedom of Information Acts for the UK and Scotland) by or with the consent of the Information Provider;
   * departmental or public sector organisation logos, crests and the Royal Arms except where they form an integral part of a document or dataset;
   * military insignia;
   * third party rights the Information Provider is not authorised to license;
   * Information subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade marks, and design rights; and
   * identity documents such as the British Passport.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse