Emergency_Workers_(Obstruction)_Act_2006

Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006

Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006

United Kingdom legislation

The Emergency Services (Obstruction) Act 2006 (c 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is intended to reduce the instances of obstruction of, or assaults on, emergency service personnel.

Quick Facts Long title, Citation ...

Sections 1 to 6 came into force on 20 February 2007.[3]

The corresponding Swedish law is called sabotage mot blåljusverksamhet [sv] (blåljussabotage for short, literally bluelight sabotage in English).

Scope

The Act defines emergency service personnel to cover firefighters, paramedics or other persons responding on behalf of the statutory ambulance service, members of HM Coastguard, and crew of a vessel of the RNLI or any other lifeboat.

Offences and penalties

The Act makes it an offence to obstruct any emergency service crew while responding to an emergency, whether physically or not, punishable by a fine of up to level 5 on the standard scale.

See R v McMenemy [2009] EWCA Crim 42, [2009] 2 Cr App R (S).

Section 6 - Repeals

This section repealed sections 44(3) and (4) of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

Section 7 - Short title, commencement and extent

This section came into force on 8 November 2006.[4]

The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 (Commencement) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/153 (C.7)) was made under section 7(2).

The Act does not extend to Scotland save for ss.1-4 where the persons impeded or obstructed are Ministry of Defence firefighters or any person assisting them. Otherwise, the relevant legislation in Scotland is the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005

References

  1. [1]
    The citation of this Act by this short title is authorised by section 7(1) of this Act.
  2. [2]
    The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006, section 7(3)
  3. [3]
    The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006, section 7(2); the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 (Commencement) Order 2007 (S.I. 2007/153 (C.7)), article 2
  4. [4]
    The Interpretation Act 1978, section 4(b)
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