Citation 3 & 4 Geo. VI c. 40 Royal assent 23 May 1940 | Introduced by Sir John Anderson | |
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Long title An Act to make further provision for the trial and punishment of treachery. Repealed 1 January 1968 (England and Wales), 18 July 1973 (United Kingdom) Repealed by Criminal Law Act 1967 (c.58), section 10(2) and part 1 of schedule 3; Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973, s.1(1) & Sch.1, Pt.V | ||
The Treachery Act 1940 (3 & 4 Geo. VI c. 40) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted during World War II to facilitate the prosecution and execution of enemy spies, and suspended after the war and later repealed. The law was passed in the month after Nazi Germany invaded France and Winston Churchill became prime minister (23 May 1940).
Contents
Reasons for the Act
The Treachery Act was deemed necessary because treason still had its own special rules of evidence and procedure which made it a difficult offence to prove and prosecute (see Treason Act 1695). The new offence of treachery, a felony, was designed to make securing convictions easier as it could be proved under the same rules of evidence as ordinary offences. It was also needed because there was doubt whether the treason laws were applicable to German saboteurs.
In commending the Bill to the House of Commons, the Home Secretary, Sir John Anderson, explained why the bill was necessary:
In the House of Lords the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Simon, elaborated:
The bill was always intended to be a temporary emergency measure which would be repealed after the War. It was rushed through Parliament in two weeks, passing the House of Lords in a few minutes and receiving royal assent on the same day.
Treachery and treason
The first section of the Treachery Act 1940 read:
Some argue that the Treachery Act 1940 could quite easily have replaced the current, ancient statutes that relate to and define treason. However, after the War people continued to be prosecuted under the Treason Act 1351 for disloyalty during the War.
Besides the laxer rules of procedure and evidence, the other main difference between treason and treachery was that the death sentence for treason was mandatory, whereas the death sentence for treachery could be commuted by the court under the Judgement of Death Act 1823. However no sentences were commuted by the courts (although one was commuted by the home secretary).
Extent
Breach of a duty of allegiance was not an element of treachery. Section 4 of the Act provided:
"Dominion" meant any Dominion within the meaning of the Statute of Westminster 1931, except Newfoundland, and included any territory administered by the Government as a Dominion (section 5(1)).
Uses of the Act
Sixteen people were shot by firing squad or hanged for treachery. The first British subject to be executed under the law was George Johnson Armstrong, who was hanged at HMP Wandsworth on 10 July 1941. Duncan Scott-Ford was also executed for treachery in November 1942. German agent Josef Jakobs, the last person to be executed in the Tower of London, was court-martialled and executed by firing squad under this Act. The last person to be executed under the Treachery Act was the British soldier Theodore Schurch, executed on 4 January 1946, who was the last person to be executed in the United Kingdom for an offence other than murder.
A seventeenth person, Portuguese diplomat Rogerio de Magalhaes Peixoto de Menezes, was sentenced to death but had his sentence commuted by the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, to penal servitude for life. He was deported in 1949.
Suspension and repeal
The Treachery Act 1940 was brought into being for the duration of the "war emergency" (section 6). The Treason Act 1945 abolished the special status of treason and enabled treason to be proved with the normal rules of evidence. The Treachery Act 1940 was suspended on 24 February 1946. It was repealed in 1968 for England and Wales and in 1973 for the rest of the United Kingdom.