Offences relating to safe access zones
Section 4: Offence of influencing, preventing access or causing harassment etc. in safe access zone
14.This section makes it an offence for a person who is in a safe access zone to act in a certain way towards a person who is also in the safe access zone for the purpose of accessing, providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services at a protected premises:
Subsection (1)(a) makes it an offence for a person within a safe access zone to do anything that intentionally or recklessly influences another person’s decision to access abortion services at a protected premises (or provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services there).
Subsection (1)(b) makes it an offence for a person within a safe access zone to do anything that intentionally or recklessly prevents or impedes another person from accessing abortion services at a protected premises (or providing or facilitating the provision of abortion services there).
Subsection (1)(c) makes it an offence for a person within a safe access zone to do anything that intentionally or recklessly causes harassment, alarm or distress to another person in connection to their decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services at a protected premises.
15.Examples of acts that may constitute an offence include holding up signs with anti-abortion messages, physically blocking the entrances to protected premises, and protesting. However, these actions would need to be carried out with an intention listed above (or carried out recklessly).
16.In certain circumstances, the accused and the affected person do not need to be in the safe access zone at the same time. Subsection (2) provides that where a person does an act that has a continuing effect, it does not matter if the other person affected was not in the safe access zone at the time the act was carried out. For example, a person who chains the doors of a protected premises shut in the middle of the night could commit an offence if it impedes another person’s ability to access the protected premises the next morning.
17.A person who commits an offence is liable to (on summary conviction) a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (being £10,000 on the date of introduction of the Bill for the Act), or (on conviction on indictment) to an unlimited fine.
