FOI request (FOIR-640356153)

Abortion Clinic Public Service Protection Orders

Requested Wed 21 August 2024
Responded Thu 22 August 2024

I am writing to request information around Public Service Protection Orders that you may or may not have in place around abortion clinics in your area. These orders create buffer zones where protestors are banned from gathering. Some council areas have implemented these orders while they wait for the government to enforce a new law created (but yet to be fully approved) in 2023 making protests within 150 of abortion clinics illegal. I am trying to find out how many councils have enforced their own PSPOs and how much this has cost them. With this in mind, please could you provide me with the following information:

1. Do you currently have a Public Service Protection Orders in place around any of the abortion clinics in your area, if so, how many PSPOs do you currently have in place.

2. In the last 5 years, how many PSPOs outside abortion clinics have you had in place? Please provide the yearly breakdown.

3. In the last 5 years, including 2024, how much money has the council spent on PSPOs outside abortion clinics? Please provide the yearly breakdown.

4. If you do not have any PSPOs in place outside any of the abortion clinics in your area, please can you tell me whether that is because:

a. We do not have any abortion clinics in our area.

b. We do not have the budget to implement PSPOs.

c. We thought that the new law announced in May 2023 creating buffer zones, would have been implemented already.

d. Other (please provide other reasoning).

Response

Hastings Borough Council holds no information in respect of this request.