Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to review the need to establish buffer zones around abortion clinics in England in the context of the Northern Ireland Assembly having voted to introduce such zones in Northern Ireland in March 2022 and the First Minister having committed to examine that matter in Scotland in May 2022.

The Home Office takes the matter of protesters outside abortion clinics extremely seriously and recognises the adverse impact that anti-abortion protests can have on patients and staff. We have conducted extensive reviews into these protests with the impact on women being at the centre of our consideration. We continue to welcome any new evidence on this important and sensitive issue, as we keep this matter under review.

We believe the police and local authorities have the necessary powers to provide appropriate local responses where there are harmful anti-abortion protests. Public Spaces Protection Orders have been implemented successfully to restrict harmful protests in Ealing, Richmond, and Manchester.