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Written question asked by Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 18 December 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 5 January 2026. It was answered by Sarah Jones (Labour) on Friday, 9 January 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Public Order Act 2023

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department carried out an impact assessment on the introduction of an affirmative statutory instrument to amend the Public Order Act 2023.

Answer

On Thursday 27 November 2025, the Home Office laid an affirmative Statutory Instrument in Parliament to amend Section 7 and Section 8 of the Public Order Act (POA) (2023). This will amend the list of key national infrastructure within Section 7 of the POA, to add the life sciences sector and define the life sciences sector in Section 8 of the POA.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument. However, the Economic Note makes frequent use of the original Impact Assessment produced for the Public Order Bill in 2022. The Economic Note also contains a specific impact test for statutory Equalities Duties in which it assesses there to be no expected impacts on any protected characteristics as an outcome of these regulations.

An Explanatory Memorandum and an Economic Note are available alongside this instrument at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2025/9780348277029/resources

The Impact Assessment conducted for the Public Order Bill in 2022 is available here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0008/Impact%20Assessment%20-%20Public%20Order%20Bill%20-%2017May22.PDF

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
101655
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Public order Impact assessments
Legislation
Public Order Act 2023
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk