Criminal Law and Practice SQE1 questions

What criminal law covers in SQE1

The SRA's assessment specification for assessments from 1 September 2026 divides criminal law into two FLK2 subject areas, and the trainer above draws on both.

Criminal Liability applies the core principles of liability to a list of specified offences:

• Principles: actus reus and mens rea.
• Offences: assault and battery, sections 47, 20 and 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, theft, robbery, burglary and aggravated burglary, criminal damage, aggravated criminal damage and arson, homicide, and the three forms of fraud.
• Defences: intoxication and self-defence or defence of another, with loss of control and diminished responsibility as partial defences to murder.
• Participation: principals and accomplices, and attempts.

Criminal Law and Practice follows a case from arrest to appeal:

• The police station: the suspect's rights, detention time limits and reviews under PACE Code C, identification procedures under Code D, silence and adverse inferences, the appropriate adult and the requirements of a lawful interview.
• Before trial: bail, first hearings, representation orders, plea before venue, allocation and sending, case management and disclosure.
• Evidence: visual identification and Turnbull, inferences from silence, hearsay, confessions, bad character, and exclusion under section 78 of PACE.
• Trial and after: burden and standard of proof, competence and compellability, special measures, good character, sentencing including Newton hearings, appeals, and the youth court.

Criminal Liability was unchanged in the 2026 review. Criminal legal aid is now examined only in Criminal Law and Practice, after the SRA removed it from Legal Services, and the area now names the requirements of a lawful interview, challenges to hearsay, good character, Newton hearings and the youth robbery guideline.

Where it sits in FLK2

From January 2027 FLK2 session 2 covers Criminal Liability, Criminal Law and Practice, Property Practice and Solicitors Accounts in the context of property, with the questions in a random order. A single question often joins the two criminal areas, asking whether an offence is made out and which court will try it. Ethics arises in the duty not to mislead the court, a client who admits guilt but wants to plead not guilty, and conflicts between co-defendants.

The SRA's 2019 blueprint, the only version published in full, gives each criminal area 14 to 20 percent of FLK2. In the SRA's annual report for 2023/24 the mean scaled score for Criminal Liability was 317 and for Criminal Law and Practice 290, below the 300 needed to pass an FLK. Questions follow the law as at 11 September 2026, the cut-off for the January 2027 sitting.

Where candidates go wrong

• Intention for murder. The mens rea is an intention to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm. Foresight of death as virtually certain is evidence from which a jury may find intention, not a rule that it must, and recklessness is never enough.
• Loss of control. Since the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 the loss of control need not be sudden, but a considered desire for revenge excludes the defence. The comparison is with a person of the defendant's age and sex with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint.
• The detention clock. Detention time runs from the relevant time, usually arrival at the police station, not arrest. A superintendent can delay access to a solicitor for an indictable offence on limited grounds, and for no more than 36 hours.
• Allocation. An indictable-only offence is sent straight to the Crown Court with no plea before venue. For an either-way offence the defendant indicates a plea first, and the credit for a guilty plea depends on the stage at which it is first indicated.
• Confessions. Under section 76 of PACE the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that a confession was not obtained by oppression, or in consequence of anything said or done that was likely to make it unreliable. The officers' good faith does not answer the unreliability test.

How to revise criminal law

Revise Criminal Liability offence by offence, as a list of elements with the matching mens rea, then add the defences that apply to each. Revise Criminal Law and Practice as a timeline from arrest to appeal, with the time limits and the decision-maker at each stage. The guide to passing SQE1 explains how to review each wrong answer, which matters here because many procedure options differ by one detail.