From prosecution offices to public prosecution offices: what the October 2026 amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Act on Pharmacological Treatment of Sexual Drive of Sexual Offenders renames

What changed

Article 5 of the Enforcement Rules of the Act on Pharmacological Treatment of Sexual Drive of Sexual Offenders governs the reporting of treatment order cases. Under Article 5(1), where a treatment order is requested under Articles 4 and 22 of the Act, the reporting officer is now the head of a district public prosecution office or the head of a branch office of a district public prosecution office, in place of the former 'head of a district prosecution office or head of a branch office'; and the report goes, without delay, to the Minister of Justice and the head of the superior public prosecution office, in place of the head of the superior prosecution office.

Article 5(2) now has the head of the public prosecution office corresponding to the court report, without delay, to the Minister of Justice and the head of the superior public prosecution office when the judgment in a reported treatment order case becomes final, replacing 'prosecution office' with 'public prosecution office' and 'shall report' with 'must report'. The rest of the rule is untouched. The amendment also renames the office lines in the official forms: Form 1, Forms 2 to 4 and Form 6, Form 24 and Form 25 replace 'prosecution office' and 'district prosecution office' with 'public prosecution office' and 'district public prosecution office'; Form 23 replaces 'chief prosecutor of a prosecution office' with 'head of a public prosecution office'; Form 28 replaces 'head of a district prosecution office' with 'head of a district public prosecution office'; and Form 29 replaces 'chief prosecutor of a district prosecution office' with 'head of a district public prosecution office'.

The official reason gives the aim as tidying the names connected with the former prosecution offices, in step with the amendment of the Government Organization Act (Act No. 21065) and the enactment of the Public Prosecutors Office Act (Act No. 21490), the former separating investigation from prosecution. This note has not read either of those Acts.

What to read in the text

The addendum states one rule only: the Rules take effect on 2 October 2026, one day after their promulgation on 1 October 2026. The addendum says nothing about cases already pending, about acts done before that date, or about any transitional measure, so the text leaves those points open.

A reader's file needs the facts that trigger Article 5 as before: the date a treatment order was requested under Articles 4 or 22 of the Act, the date the judgment in that case became final, and the offices involved. Only the names of those offices change, so the same reporting acts and the same 'without delay' timing apply from 2 October 2026.

Questions for the legislature

Article 5(2) now assigns the report to 'the head of the public prosecution office corresponding to the court'. Neither the text, the addendum nor the official reason says how that correspondence is fixed where several branch offices serve one court, or where the office matching a given court has changed hands since the request was filed. Which office is the corresponding public prosecution office on a given day?

The forms now read 'public prosecution office' and 'head of a district public prosecution office', but the addendum gives no rule on papers prepared earlier. The text, the addendum and the official reason say nothing about documents already drawn on the old templates. Is a treatment order request or report filed after 2 October 2026 on a form still naming a prosecution office accepted as filed on the current form?

When to revisit

We revisit this note if the Public Prosecutors Office Act (Act No. 21490) or the Government Organization Act is read against Article 5 to fix which office corresponds to which court, if a further amendment renumbers the forms, or if a court or Ministry of Justice practice addresses filings on the superseded forms.