Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for freedom of religion and belief of banning silent prayer in abortion service protection zones designated under the Public Order Act 2023.

Section 9 makes it a criminal offence for a person who is within a safe access zone to do any 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.

Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 does not make any reference to silent prayer.

The Equality Impact Assessment for the Public Order Act 2023 assesses the impact of the Act, including section 9, on people with religious beliefs. This document is published on the GOV.UK website here: Public Order Bill: equality impact assessment - GOV.UK.

Decisions around the enforcement of safe access zones are for the police, who are operationally independent from Government. The College of Policing are responsible for providing operational guidance to the police. They have released their own supplementary content on this topic, available here: Section 9 - Public Order Act 2023: Supplementary content.