Guidance

Sites under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005

Published 26 January 2022

© Crown copyright 2022

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sites-under-the-serious-organised-crime-and-police-act-2005/sites-under-the-serious-organised-crime-and-police-act-2005

Sites designated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

It is a criminal offence to trespass on a protected site designated under SOCPA 2005. A protected site means either a licensed nuclear site or a designated site.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the categories of sites that can be designated by a Secretary of State are:

  • crown land;
  • land belonging to Her Majesty The Queen in her private capacity, or the immediate heir to the Throne in his private capacity
  • a site which it appears to the Secretary of State to be appropriate to designate in the interests of national security
  • all licensed nuclear sites.

Sites designated in Scotland

It is a criminal offence for persons to enter or be on a site designated in Scotland without lawful authority. In Scotland, the powers under section 129 provide that sites can be designated only on the grounds of national security.

Penalties

The penalties attached to this offence in England (and Wales) under section 128(5) are that a person guilty of the offence is liable on summary conviction to:

(a) imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or;

(b) to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.

The same penalties exist in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Site Boundaries

Sites are defined by their address and a map of the boundary can be found on the Legislation website. This can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/15/contents.

List of sites

Designated sites

There are currently 19 royal, parliamentary and government protected sites. These are as follows:

Royal

  • Buckingham Palace, London
  • St James’s Palace, London
  • Kensington Palace, London
  • Highgrove House, Gloucestershire
  • Sandringham House including Anmer Hall, Norfolk
  • Windsor Castle, Berkshire

Parliamentary

  • Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House site, London
  • Richmond House, London
  • The Scottish Parliamentary Building, Edinburgh
  • The National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff
  • The Chequers estate, Buckinghamshire
  • 10 - 12 Downing Street site as well as 70 Whitehall

Government

  • 85 Albert Embankment, London
  • Ministry of Defence Main Building, London
  • Thames House, London
  • Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) Harp Hill, Cheltenham
  • GCHQ Hubble Road, Cheltenham
  • GCHQ Racecourse Road, North Yorkshire
  • GCHQ Woodford, Cornwall

Ministry of Defence sites

  • AWE Aldermaston
  • RAF Brize Norton
  • AWE Burghfield
  • HMNB Clyde
  • RNAD Coulport
  • RAF Croughton
  • HMNB Devonport
  • RAF Fairford
  • RAF Feltwell
  • RAF Fylingdales
  • RAF Lakenheath
  • RAF Menwith Hill
  • RAF Mildenhall
  • Northwood Headquarters
  • RAF Welford
  • Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down
  • RAF Molesworth
  • RAF Waddington

Licenced nuclear sites

Civil sites:

  • Sellafield, Cumbria
  • Dounreay, Scotland
  • Capenhurst, near Chester
  • Drigg, near Sellafield
  • Harwell, near Oxford
  • Springfields, near Preston
  • Windscale, within Sellafield
  • Winfrith, near Wool in Dorset
  • GE Healthcare sites in Amersham and Cardiff
  • London University’s Imperial College of Science and Technology site in Ascot, Berkshire
  • Berkeley, near Bristol
  • Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at Birniehill, East Kilbride

And the following nuclear power station sites:

  • Chapelcross, Dumfriesshire
  • Dungeness A and B, Kent
  • Hartlepool, near Middlesborough
  • Heysham 1 and 2, Lancashire
  • Hinkley Point A and B, Somerset
  • Hunterston A and B, Ayrshire
  • Oldbury, near Bristol
  • Sizewell A and B, Suffolk
  • Torness, East Lothian
  • Bradwell, Essex
  • Calder Hall, within Sellafield
  • Wylfa, on Anglesey
  • Trawsfynydd, Dolgellau, Wales

Defence sites:

  • Atomic Weapons Establishments sites near Aldermaston and Burghfield, Berkshire
  • Devonshire Dock Complex, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
  • Devonport Royal Dockyard, Plymouth
  • Rolls Royce Neptune site and Nuclear Fuel Production Plant in Derby
  • Rosyth Dockyard, Fife
Back to top