Active Proceedings Calculator (CCA 1981) — When Strict Liability Begins and Ends

Strict liability under section 2 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 attaches from a specific initial step, and everything you publish after it is judged against the substantial-risk-of-serious-prejudice test. Establishing which step happened first, and on what date, is the whole of the question.

Last reviewed: 24 August 2026Next review due: 24 August 2027

Court Active-Proceedings Calculator

Work out when criminal proceedings became “active” for strict-liability contempt purposes under the Contempt of Court Act 1981, and when that active period is likely to end.

Not legal advice. Active status ends on a qualifying event (verdict, sentence, discontinuance), not on a calendar date. The estimated range below is illustrative only, based on typical case timelines — always check the actual case status before relying on it.

Trigger event

Trigger date

Court level

Have the proceedings already concluded?

Complete the fields above to calculate the active-proceedings window.

How it works

You choose the trigger event — arrest without warrant, issue of a warrant, issue of a summons, service of an indictment or other document specifying the charge, or oral charge — and give its date, then set the court level and say whether proceedings have concluded.
If still ongoing it returns “ACTIVE — strict liability applies now” with the number of days elapsed, plus an estimated conclusion window: three to eighteen months from trigger for a summary matter, six to twenty-four months for the Crown Court.
A trigger date in the future returns “NOT YET ACTIVE”. If you say proceedings have concluded, it asks how they ended — convicted and sentenced, acquitted, discontinued, or another qualifying end — and the end date, then reports the total number of days the case was active and validates that the end date is not before the trigger.
The result panel names the trigger you chose and cites the Contempt of Court Act 1981 Schedule 1 paragraph it attributes that trigger to — paragraph 4 for each of the five initial steps, matching this site’s own Reporting Restriction Checker — renders a quoted extract of s.2 beneath, and cites paragraph 5 for conclusion of proceedings.
On-screen the tool states plainly that active status ends on a qualifying event, not on a calendar date, and that the estimated range is illustrative only.

When to use it

The moment you learn of an arrest, to fix the date from which the strict liability rule applies to your coverage.
When two triggers are in play — an arrest followed by a charge — and you need the earlier one, which is the one that counts.
When deciding whether archive material about a defendant can be republished, and how long the exposure will last.
After a verdict, to confirm whether the active period has actually ended — it usually runs through to sentence, not to the verdict.
When planning coverage of a long-running case and you need a rough sense of how long the window will be open.

What it does not do

Not legal advice. Contempt turns on what you publish, not on which day it is; a case can be active for two years without a single word of your coverage being prejudicial.
The estimated conclusion window is a typical-timeline guess by court level. It has no connection to your case, and real listings routinely fall well outside it.
It cannot see the case. Whether proceedings concluded, and on what date, is whatever you typed — the tool has no access to court records and cannot know that a case was discontinued.
It covers criminal proceedings in England and Wales. Civil proceedings, appellate proceedings and Scottish practice all engage the Act on different terms, and oral charge is not an initial step in Scotland.

More tools

This is one of the free tools on UK JournoHub. See the full tools index for the rest.

Primary sources

Contempt of Court Act 1981 Sch.1 — when proceedings are active— legislation.gov.uk
Contempt of Court Act 1981 s.2 — the strict liability rule— legislation.gov.uk