Work began on the list in 1988, when the list contained only imprisonable offenses. The list was subsequently updated and expanded to include nonimprisonable offenses. All legislation was scanned to produce a full list of over 5,000 entries. Each entry on the list has a brief description of the offense, the name and number of the act and section that defines the offense, an indication of whether the offense is summary or indictable, the maximum fine that may be awarded, and the maximum custodial sentence that may be awarded. The section of a particular act that defines the offense is listed in three columns. Some acts have one penalty that applies to a whole act, and the offenses are all listed in one section of the act. In this circumstance, some parts of the list have all of the various offenses listed separately, but other parts of the list have one entry for all the offenses. In future lists, all offenses will be listed separately. Using this list, it is now possible to identify easily all offenses that meet given criteria, such as having a particular maximum custodial sentence. The ability to identify groups of offenses permits the systematic analysis of some aspects of the criminal justice system to be conducted more efficiently than in the past.