What is the threshold for "key national infrastructure"?

Question

On Monday 30th October for the first time police used section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, which bans any act “which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales”, to order an immediate end to a Just Stop Oil protest taking part in a slow march in Parliament Square.

I include a map of Parliament Square below. One primary feature of it is that it is four roads arranged in a square, such that a blockage at any point can be diverted around. Another feature is that that it is in the middle of London, and is served by one of the best public transport infrastructures in the world. From the common understanding of "key infrastructure", perhaps something like "how much of the functioning of the country is interrupted by the disruption" it is hard to think of a road that is less "key" than any of the four roads that make up Parliament square.

How is "key national infrastructure" defined? Are there any hard rules one could use in choosing a road to protest on that was explicitly NOT key national infrastructure?

Answer 1

With regard to roads, "key national infrastructure" are A or B roads, or 'special roads'.

Section 7(6) of the Public Order Act 2023 says:

(6)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,

(f)downstream gas infrastructure,

(g)onshore oil and gas exploration and production infrastructure,

(h)onshore electricity generation infrastructure, or

(i)newspaper printing infrastructure.

Section 8 makes further provision about these kinds of infrastructure. [my emphasis]

Section 8 POA 2023 says (in part):

(2)“Road transport infrastructure” means—

(a)a special road within the meaning of the Highways Act 1980 (see section 329(1) of that Act), or

(b)a road which, under the system for assigning identification numbers to roads administered by the Secretary of State or the Welsh Ministers, has for the time being been assigned a number prefixed by A or B.

I think 8(2)(b) applies to the circumstances in the question.

In the screencap of Google Maps below, we can see labels for two A roads adjacent to Parliament Square: the A302 (part of the London Inner Ring Road) and the A3212. Parliament Square functions as a roundabout (therefore the road around it is one-way) for the A302, which comes from Westminster Bridge (east of the image), goes around Parliament Square and continues south-west (along Broad Sanctuary and then Victoria Street) between the Supreme Court and St Margaret's Church.

Coming from the north, the A3212 runs south along Whitehall, Parliament Street, past Parliament Square, and then Old Palace Yard.

Section 329(1) of the Highways Act 1980:

“special road” means a highway, or a proposed highway, which is a special road in accordance with section 16 above [F28or by virtue of an order granting development consent under the Planning Act 2008];