The Emergency Services (Obstruction) Act 2006 (c 39) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. It is intended to reduce the instances of obstruction of, or assaults on, emergency service personnel. Sections 1 to 6 came into force on 20 February 2007. The corresponding Swedish law is called ' (''blåljussabotage'' for short, literally ''bluelight sabotage'' in English).

Scope

The Act defines emergency service personnel to cover

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

paramedic A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

s or other persons responding on behalf of the statutory ambulance service, members of

HM Coastguard His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within the ...

, and crew of a vessel of the

RNLI The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

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 The standard scale is a system in Commonwealth law whereby financial criminal penalties (fines) in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale. Then, when inflation makes it necessary to increase the levels of the fines the legisl ...

. See R v McMenemy

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight 9 * ...

EWCA Crim 42,

2 Cr App R (S).

Section 6 - Repeals

This section repealed sections 44(3) and (4) of the

Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (c 21), sometimes abbreviated as FRSA 2004, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It came into effect on 1 October 2004. It only applies to Great Britain and most provisions apply only in Engl ...

Section 7 - Short title, commencement and extent

This section came into force on 8 November 2006.The

Interpretation Act 1978 The Interpretation Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act makes provision for the interpretation of Acts of Parliament, Measures of the General Synod of the Church of England, Measures of the Church Assembly, subord ...

, section 4(b)
The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 (Commencement) Order 2007
(S.I. 2007/153 (C.7)) was made under section 7(2).

References

Halsbury's Statutes ''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...

, *Ormerod (ed). Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law. 13th ed. OUP. 2011. p 673.

External links

* {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2006 Emergency services in the United Kingdom