Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006

Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 ^[1]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make it an offence to obstruct or hinder persons who provide emergency services; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2006 c 39
Territorial extent	England and Wales and Northern Ireland. [2]
Dates
Royal assent	8 November 2006
Commencement	20 February 2007 [3]
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Emergency Services (Obstruction) Act 2006 (c 39) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is intended to reduce the instances of obstruction of, or assaults on, emergency service personnel.

The act was passed as a private member's bill. ^[4]

The corresponding Swedish law is called sabotage mot blåljusverksamhet  [ sv ] (blåljussabotage for short, literally bluelight sabotage in English).

Scope

The act defines emergency service personnel to cover firefighters, paramedics or other persons responding on behalf of the statutory ambulance service, members of HM Coastguard, and crew of a vessel of the RNLI or any other lifeboat. ^[5]

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.

See R v McMenemy [2009] EWCA Crim 42, [2009] 2 Cr App R (S).

References

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

1. The citation of this Act by this short title is authorised by section 7(1) of this Act.
2. The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006, section 7(3)
3. "HOC 3/2007 The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006". Police Professional. 8 March 2007. Archived from the original on 10 January 2026. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
4. "New £5,000 fine for 999 attackers". BBC News. 13 October 2006. Archived from the original on 6 July 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
5. "Obstructing 999 services outlawed". BBC News. 20 February 2007. Archived from the original on 16 April 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2025.

External links

• The full text of Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 at Wikisource
• Text of the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk .