The Conservative government is planning to introduce major changes to public order legislation to crack down on protests, under a new “Protection of the Police and Public Bill” planned for 2021.
In September, Home Secretary Priti Patel denounced environmental campaigners Extinction Rebellion as “so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals” at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference and, at the Conservative Party conference in early October, accused Black Lives Matter campaigners of “hooliganism and thuggery”.
Patel also asked Sir Tom Winsor, the HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, for a thematic review of “how effectively the police manage protests”. The inspectorate delivered an initial response to the Home Secretary in a letter on 20 November, with a full review report expected in February 2021.
What has emerged from the consultation period on the review, with inspectors talking to a variety of interested parties (including Netpol), is that “effectively managing protest” appears to mean, as it so often in the past, the introduction of new police powers.
The impetus for seeking changes to legislation comes primarily from the senior ranks of the police, however, rather than the Home Secretary. In October last year, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, said:
“We have been engaged with the Home Office around a number of asks in relation to the legislation. This work is at an early stage, but includes looking at what constitutes serious disruption, and how Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act may be more aligned.
Netpol understands the government now intends to deliver on the police’s wish list of new powers by submitting a bill to Parliament next year, on the back of an expected favourable review report.
This will seek to amend the current Public Order Act 1986 in three ways.
The proposed changes
- Firstly, the government wants to amend Section 14 of the Public Order Act, which currently gives a senior officer the power to impose conditions of a static assembly including the place it is held, its maximum duration and the maximum number of participants.
It seems the intention is to broaden these powers so they are more like those available for processions, which also allow the police to prohibit a demonstration from entering any specified public place.
It was the decision by the Metropolitan Police in October 2019 to unlawfully impose a blanket condition using Section 14 to prohibit various XR protests across the whole of London that was successfully challenged in the High Court.
- Secondly, the government plans to change the wording of powers that impose conditions on protests so that they are no longer for “serious disruption to the life of the community” but for “significant disruption”.
This would provide senior police officers with greater flexibility to use these powers, although lowing the threshold for imposing restrictions does not automatically mean the police can “manage” a protest to their advantage. In April 2019, police issued numerous Section 14 notices against Extinction Rebellion protesters, who refused to comply with them. The proposed changes are simply more likely to give the police the chance to start earlier making a greater number of arrests.
- Thirdly, the government intends to introduce new grounds for using stop and search powers in order to “prevent significant disruption”, which could include searches for items that protesters could potentially use for direct action or civil disobedience, such as D-locks or climbing equipment.
This would represent a significant expansion of stop and search powers and encourage front-line police officers to search everyone even vaguely associated with a particular protest, just as Kent Police officers did (unlawfully) at Kingsnorth Climate Camp back in 2008.
The right to protest needs protecting
All these proposed changes were floated to sympathetic media in October 2019 in the aftermath of the Extinction Rebellion protests in London and, if implemented, represent a major assault on the right to protest.
As campaign groups have recently made overwhelmingly clear, the ability of people to collectively take to the streets in opposition to government policy does not need managing, it needs protecting.
The Home Secretary has repeatedly shown her open hostility towards protest groups. Even before any new changes are made, the police are already interpreting what they see as “peaceful” protest so that even minor breaches of the law are treated as invalidating the collective legitimacy of protesters’ demands. The proposed amendments to public order legislation next year are likely to lead to even more aggressive tactics and in turn, to justify more surveillance on campaigners.
As solicitor Mike Schwarz said last year, “police powers and criminal offences are just levers in the hands of the State in its struggle to maintain order and win”.
This is why Netpol is currently arguing for stronger protections and a Charter of Freedom of Assembly Rights. In the face of a draconian, politically-motived crackdown, we need a clear reminder that the police still have a legal duty to both facilitate and safeguard our rights.
The police are far too heavy handed and this is not acceptable!!!
The right to peaceful protest must be protected. Government are supposed to represent us. We should have the right to protest if other methods of complaint have been ignored. This is particularly relevant to hs2 where every major public poll has been overwhelmingly opposed to it but it is still proceeding. Changing the laws is merely a way of ensuring that Joe Public knuckles under and does as he’s told. This is not democracy – it’s martial law. The right to protest peacefully must not be taken away from us. This is how dictatorships evolve without you even realising.
Every time you give the police more powers, that bunch of tattooed and sadistic thugs abuse them.
We are clearly in the midst of an authoritarian coup. I took part in the anti-Brexit marches where over a million people of all ages marched peacefully and good humouredly each time. The only police cordons I saw were to keep Brexiter yobs from causing trouble. Will this sort of peaceful march ever be allowed again? There will be increasingly angry marches as Brexit impact hits. I bet that’s part of the thinking. All our old values are lost. We face being lost to the great populist enslaver.
Thankyou for your work.
How can we prevent this? Who the hell is passing these laws? The corrupt politicians? Because it’s clearly not democratic people???
Wow Britain really devolving into a far right fascist state!
Welcome to the Parler!
Its totally wtong
I believe British police should be permitted to do what they are supposed to i.e. uphold the law even if that should mean getting ‘heavy handed. There are anarchists parading about our streets who call themselves ‘peaceful protestors’ and it should be stopped. I also think that any protest should be illegal if it interferes with thoroughfares of any kind be they pedestrian or vehicular. Why should the general public have to suffer. Where would we be without the police??? The ‘long arm of the law’ has been cut far too short.
Yes we want the police to work with us and protect us (all citizens). What can we do to stop this madness?
But surely this is what XR want isn’t it? We should be seen to be willing to suffer arrest and imprisonment for our cause. Roger Hallam complained that people weren’t being arrested fast enough. I has to demand to be arrested last October
Following on the covid crisis mismanagement the govnt is proving that it is incompetent to deal with problems in society. Roll on devolution and regional assemblies including citizens assemblies.
The Home Secretary has been recently told not to bully the person introducing the law is this not because she has made a protest you cannot have one rule for one and not the other she was allowed to stay in her job the gov agrees with their own protest but not let there own people. Indutibly it is hypocrisy.
Is the Bill Of Rights Act of 1688, in particular the freedom of speech, still in force?
More Right Wing oppression. That’s just what the country needs at this time