Unlike the original Riot Act, the "Criminal Code" requires the assembled people to disperse within thirty minutes. When the proclamation has not been read, the punishment for rioting is up to two years of imprisonment. When the proclamation has been read and then ignored, the penalty increases, up to life imprisonment. The maximum penalty of life imprisonment also applies to someone who wilfully uses force to hinder the reading of the proclamation, or to those fail to disperse and who have reasonable grounds to believe the proclamation would have been made had the official not been hindered by force.