Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that offers of practical help to women outside abortion clinics will be permitted when section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 is implemented.

Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 does not criminalise any specific activity within safe access zones. It introduces a new criminal offence for a person who is within a Safe Access Zone to do an act with the intent of, or reckless as to whether it has the effect of, influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services, obstructing or impeding any person accessing, providing, or facilitating the provision of abortion services, or causing harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services.