Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Citation | 2023 NI c 1 |
Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023
2023 CHAPTER 1
An Act to make provision in respect of safe access zones for premises providing abortion services.
[06 February 2023]
BE IT ENACTED by being passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly and assented to by His Majesty as follows:
1 Premises where abortion treatments are carried out
(1) In this Act, premises are protected premises if they satisfy conditions 1 and 2.
(2) Condition 1 is that they are premises where provision is made, or proposed to be made, for treatment for the lawful termination of pregnancy in accordance with the Abortion (Northern Ireland) (No. 2) Regulations 2020.
(3) Condition 2 is that the operator of the premises has given notice to the Department that the operator wishes the premises to be protected premises and that notice has not been withdrawn by the operator.
2 Premises where information, advice or counselling about abortion treatments are provided
(1) In this Act, premises are also protected premises if they satisfy conditions 1, 2 and 3.
(2) Condition 1 is that the premises are—
(a)
(a) an HSC hospital,
(b)
(b) a clinic provided by an HSC trust,
(c)
(c) used to provide primary medical services in accordance with arrangements under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, or
(d)
(d) any other premises approved for the purposes of this section by the Department.
(3) Condition 2 is that information, advice or counselling relating to treatment for the termination of pregnancy is provided at the premises.
(4) Condition 3 is that the operator of the premises has given notice to the Department that the operator wishes the premises to be protected premises and that notice has not been withdrawn by the operator.
(5) In this section—
“” means a hospital managed by an HSC trust,
“” means a Health and Social Care trust established under Article 10 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991.
3 Protected persons
In this Act, a protected person is a person attending protected premises for the purposes of—
(a) accessing the treatment, information, advice or counselling provided there,
(b) accompanying a person described in paragraph (a), at the invitation of that person, or
(c) working in, or providing services to, the protected premises.
4 Establishment of safe access zone
(1) A safe access zone is established for protected premises in accordance with this section.
(2) Except as provided by subsection (3), the safe access zone for protected premises consists of—
(a)
(a) the protected premises; and
(b)
(b) the public area outside the protected premises which lies within 100 metres from each entrance to, or exit from, those premises.
(3) If the operator of any protected premises is of the opinion that the public area mentioned in subsection (2)(b) is not adequate to afford safe access to the premises for protected persons, the operator may give notice to the Department that it wishes the public area so mentioned to be extended by a specified distance not exceeding 150 metres.
(4) On receipt of a notice under section 1(3) or section 2(4) relating to any premises, the Department must include an entry relating to those premises in the list maintained by it under section 7; and a safe access zone is established in relation to those premises on publication of that entry under section 7.
(5) On receipt of a notice under subsection (3) relating to any premises, the Department must amend any entry in the list published by it under section 7 which relates to the premises; and the extended safe access zone is established in relation to those premises on publication of the amended entry under section 7.
(6) In this section “” means a place to which the public has access, without payment, as of right.
5 Offences in respect of a safe access zone
(1) In this section, D means a person who is not a protected person.
(2) It is an offence...
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