Question
At a recent Policing Board engagement event a member of the public raised an issue and has since been in contact by email to seek further advice. Their query relates to the safe access zones legislation and I would be grateful if you could provide me with advice that I can share on to them in relation to what this legislation means for the routine work of clergy in hospitals generally and specifically:
• prayer with patients during end-of-life care;
• scripture reading requested by patients or families;
• carrying Bibles or religious materials through public areas of hospitals;
• consensual pastoral ministry within wards or hospital grounds;
• visible religious practice within areas covered by Safe Access Zones.
Answer
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) welcomes the opportunity to set out clearly how the Abortion Service (Safe Access Zones) Act (Northern Ireland) 2023 applies in this context.
What the Act Does
The Act establishes Safe Access Zones around premises where abortion services are provided. Each zone covers the protected premises and the public area within 100 metres of each entrance or exit. This can be extended by up to a further 150 metres where necessary. The Act protects three categories of people; those attending the premises to access abortion services; anyone accompanying them at their request and staff working at or providing services to those premises.
Impact on day-to-day ministry
The PSNI wishes to make clear that the vast majority of hospital chaplaincy and pastoral ministry is entirely unaffected by this legislation. Clergy and religious visitors going about their normal day-to-day work in hospitals will not be impacted by the Act unless their activities bring them in a Safe Access Zone in connection with abortion
services. Most hospital wards and clinical areas fall entirely out of the scope of the Act and ministry within those areas continues without restriction.
What is an offence?
It is an offence for anyone who is not one of those protected persons to behave within a Safe Access Zone in a way that influences, prevents access for, or causes harassment, alarm or distress to a person attending for abortion services – whether directly or indirectly.
Critically a person does not have to intend to commit an offence. Under the act, it is sufficient that a person was reckless as to whether their behaviour had one of those effects. This means that a person cannot avoid liability simply by claiming they did not mean to influence or distress anyone. If a reasonable person would recognise that the behaviour was likely to have that effect, an offence may have been committed.
There is also a specific offence of recording a person within a safe access zone without their consent.
No exemptions exist
The Act makes no exemptions based on profession, vocation or religious identity. This includes members of the clergy. A person role as a Chaplin, minister or religious visitor does not exempt them from the provisions of the act.
Describing conduct as pastoral, prayerful or religious in nature does not determine whether an offence has been committed. The test is not how the person describes their own behaviour – it is whether that behaviour, assessed objectively and in its full context, influenced, impeded, or caused distress to a protected person, or was reckless as to whether it did so.
Response to the specific questions raised
1. Prayer with patients during end-of-life care
Where a member of the clergy is invited by a patient or their family to pray with them, and that patient is not attending for abortion services, this activity falls outside the scope of the Act. Where it takes place within a Safe Access Zone, the lawfulness of that activity will depend on whether it could reasonably influence, cause distress to, or impede a protected person nearby. The Act applies to all conduct within a Safe Access Zone regardless of its nature or purpose.
2. Scripture reading requested by patients or families
As with prayer, scripture reading conducted at the express request of a patient or their family, with a patient not attending for abortion services, is not the conduct this legislation was designed to address. However, the same principle applies – if such activity takes place within a Safe Access Zone and a reasonable person would recognise it as capable of indirectly influencing or distressing a protected person, an offence may be committed, regardless of the consensual nature of the activity between the clergy member and their patient.
3. Carrying Bibles or religious material through public areas of hospitals
Carrying religious materials through public areas of the hospital that fall outside a Safe Access Zone is not an offence under the Act. However, carrying or visibly displaying religious materials within a Safe Access Zone may constitute an offence where doing so is capable of indirectly or directly influencing a protected person attending for abortion services, or causing them harassment, alarm or distress. The location, manner and context in which the materials are carried or displayed will all be relevant to any assessment by officers.
4. Consensual pastoral ministry within wards or hospital grounds
The consent of a patient to receive pastoral ministry does not determine whether an offence under the Act has been committed. The Act is concerned with the effect of conduct on protected persons attending for abortion services – not with the relationship between the clergy member and the patient they are visiting. Pastoral ministry that takes place within a Safe Access Zone, even where fully consensual between the clergy member and their patient, may still constitute an offence if it is capable of influencing, impeding, or causing distress to a protected person in that zone.
5. Visible religious practice within areas covered by Safe Access Zones
Visible religious practice may constitute an offence where it is capable of directly or indirectly influencing a protected person attending for abortion services, or of causing them harassment, alarm or distress – even where no direct approach or communication takes place. A person cannot reply on the passive or visible nature of their conduct as a defence. Officers will assess all the circumstances, including the nature, location, and likely effect of the conduct on the protected persons.
Anyone with specific questions about how the Act applies to their individual circumstances is encouraged to seek independent legal advice. This response is intended as general guidance only. The PSNI is committed to upholding the law and supporting both the rights of those accessing lawful healthcare services and the rights of those carrying out legitimate ministry and pastoral care services across Northern Ireland.
Patrick Nelson