Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — Report (6th Day) — Amendment 152 — 17 Jan 2022 at 23:19

Moved by Baroness Williams of Trafford

152: After Clause 62, insert the following new Clause-“Interference with use or operation of key national infrastructure(1) 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.(2) 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.(3) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable-(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, to a fine or to both;(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, to a fine, or to both.(4) In relation to an offence committed before the coming into force of paragraph 24(2) of Schedule 22 to the Sentencing Act 2020, the reference in subsection (3)(a) to 12 months is to be read as a reference to 6 months.(5) 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.(6) The cases in which infrastructure is prevented from being used or operated for any of its intended purposes include where its use or operation for any of those purposes is significantly delayed.(7) In this section “key national infrastructure” means-(a) road transport infrastructure,(b) rail infrastructure,(c) air transport infrastructure,(d) harbour infrastructure,(e) downstream oil infrastructure, or(f) newspaper printing infrastructure.Section (Key national infrastructure) makes further provision about these kinds of infrastructure.(8) The Secretary of State may by regulations made by statutory instrument- (a) amend subsection (7) to add a new kind of infrastructure or to vary or remove an existing kind of infrastructure;(b) amend section (Key national infrastructure) to add, amend or remove provision about a kind of infrastructure which is in, or is to be added to, subsection (7) or is to be removed from that subsection.(9) Regulations under subsection (8)-(a) may make different provision for different purposes;(b) may make consequential, supplementary, incidental, transitional, transitory or saving provision.(10) A statutory instrument containing regulations under subsection (8) may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.(11) In this section-“England” includes the English inshore region within the meaning of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (see section 322 of that Act);“trade dispute” has the same meaning as in Part 4 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, except that section 218 of that Act is to be read as if-(a) it made provision corresponding to section 244(4) of that Act, and(b) in subsection (5), the definition of worker included any person falling within paragraph (b) of the definition of worker in section 244(5) of that Act;“Wales” includes the Welsh inshore region within the meaning of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (see section 322 of that Act).”Member’s explanatory statementThis amendment makes it an offence for a person to do an act which interferes with the use or operation of key national infrastructure where the person intends the act to have that effect or is reckless as to whether it will do so. This is subject to a defence of reasonable excuse and a defence applying to industrial action.

Ayes 153, Noes 198.

Debate in Parliament |