Malicious Damage Act 1861

Malicious Damage Act 1861
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England and Ireland relating to Malicious Injuries to Property.
Citation24 & 25 Vict. c. 97
Territorial extent 
Dates
Royal assent6 August 1861
Commencement1 November 1861
Other legislation
AmendsPrevention of Offences Act 1851
Amended by
Relates toOffences Against the Person Act 1861
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Text of the Malicious Damage Act 1861 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Malicious Damage Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 97) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to malicious damage from a number of earlier statutes into a single act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the act, incorporated with little or no variation in their 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 is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation Act, the Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo 4 c 30) (and the equivalent Irish Act), incorporating subsequent statutes.

The act applied in the Republic of Ireland until 1991 and still applies in some Commonwealth countries which were parts of the British Empire in 1861, such as Sierra Leone.