Public Order Act 2003: Locking On, Tunnelling and Interference with Key National Infrastructure

The Public Order Act 2023 includes a whole range of measures designed to prevent serious disruption to key national infrastructure.

Three such measures, which I shall be considering more closely in today's article, are:

• Making it an offence for a person to "lock on" to an object with a view to causing serious disruption;
• Making it an offence for a person to tunnel beneath land with a view to causing serious disruption thereon;
• Making it an offence to interfere with the use or operation of key national infrastructure.

I should highlight that the legislation has very broad scope and covers pretty much every eventuality where a person might cause serious disruption through a deliberate or reckless act.

The legislation is already being enforced robustly by the court, with several Just Stop Oil protestors receiving custodial sentences after being convicted of interfering with key national infrastructure.

Locking on:

Section 1(1) of the Act states that a person commits an offence if:

(a) they:

(i) attach themselves to another person, to an object or to land; or

(ii) attach a person to another person, to an object or to land; or

(iii) attach an object to another object or to land; and

(b) that act causes, or is capable of causing, serious disruption to:

(i) two or more individuals; or

(ii) an organisation;

in a place other than a dwelling; and

(c) they intend that act to have a consequence mentioned in paragraph (b) or are reckless as to whether it will have such a consequence.

Subsection (2) states that it is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for the act mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection.

Subsection (3) states that the maximum penalty for an offence under section 1(1) is 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction.

Subsection (5) defines a dwelling in quite broad terms, as:

(a) a building or structure used as a dwelling; or

(b) any part of a building or structure, if the part is used as a dwelling;

and includes any yard, garden, grounds, garage or outhouse belonging to and used with a dwelling.

Section 2 of the Act, which I shall not be going into any detail about, makes it an offence for a person to have in their possession any object that can be used for the purposes of locking on.

Tunnelling:

Section 3(1) of the Act states that a person commits an offence if:

(a) they create, or participate in the creation of, a tunnel; and

(b) the creation or existence of the tunnel causes, or is capable of causing, serious disruption to:

(i) two or more individuals; or

(ii) an organisation;

in a place other than a dwelling; and

(c) they intend the creation or existence of the tunnel to have a consequence mentioned in paragraph (b) or are reckless as to whether its creation or existence will have such a consequence.

Subsection (2) states that it is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for creating, or participating in the creation of, the tunnel.

Subsection (3) states that without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), a person is to be treated as having a reasonable excuse for the purposes of that subsection if the creation of the tunnel was authorised by a person with an interest in land which entitled them to authorise its creation.

Subsection (4) states that the maximum penalty for an offence under section 3(1) is 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction; 3 years' custody and/or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.

Subsection (5) defines a tunnel in quite broad terms, as an excavation that extends beneath land, irrespective of its size or destination. It also states that any excavation created with the intention that it will become a tunnel, or connect to an existing tunnel, shall be treated as a tunnel for the purposes of this section.

Subsection (7) states that this section does not apply in relation to a tunnel if or to the extent that it is under a dwelling.

Section 4 of the Act, which I shall not be going into any detail about, makes it an offence for a person to be present in a tunnel with the intention of causing serious disruption.

Section 5 of the Act, which I shall not be going into any detail about, makes it an offence for a person to have in their possession any object that can be used for the purposes of tunnelling.

Interference with use or operation of key national infrastructure:

Section 7(1) of the Act states that a person commits an offence if:

(a) they do an act which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales; and

(b) they intend that act to interfere with the use or operation of such infrastructure or are reckless as to whether it will do so.

Subsection (2) states that it is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to prove that:

(a) they had a reasonable excuse for the act mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection; or

(b) the act mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection was done wholly or mainly in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute.

Subsection (3) states that the maximum penalty for an offence under section 7(1) is 26 weeks' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction; 12 months' custody and/or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.

Subsections (4) and (5) state that for the purposes of subsection (1) a person’s act interferes with the use or operation of key national infrastructure if it prevents the infrastructure from being used or operated to any extent for any of its intended purposes. This includes situations where use or operation of the infrastructure for any of its intended purposes is significantly delayed.

Subsection (6) defines "key national infrastructure" as:

(a) road transport infrastructure;

(b) rail infrastructure;

(c) air transport infrastructure;

(d) harbour infrastructure;

(e) downstream oil infrastructure;

(f) downstream gas infrastructure;

(g) onshore oil and gas exploration and production infrastructure;

(h) onshore electricity generation infrastructure; or

(i) newspaper printing infrastructure.

Section 8 of the Act, which I shall not be going into any detail about, makes further provision about these kinds of infrastructure.

Subsection (7) states that the Secretary of State may by regulations made by statutory instrument amend subsection (6) to add, vary or remove a kind of infrastructure and amend section 8 to reflect any such amendments.