Peers in the House of Lords are debating the Public Order Bill, which opponents say would introduce draconian new laws against the right to protest in England and Wales.
The draft legislation intends to combat “guerrilla tactics” employed by climate groups such as Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, according to Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom.
It includes a new offence of locking on – for example, glueing yourself to the road – as well as tunnelling, obstructing major transport networks and interfering with key national infrastructure, such as railways, roads and printing presses.
It also proposes to hand police new stop-and-search powers related to these offences.
Read More: Controversial Public Order Bill passed at Westminster
Concerns have been raised about the extent of the proposed new legislation, which has been branded “outrageous” in the Lords, with the Government accused of “shoddy work risking the liberties of our people many years into the future”.
Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom argued that the Public Order Bill gives police “proactive powers” to help curb disruption caused by protesters’ “guerrilla tactics”.
He claimed that perpetrators are “too often acquitted on a technicality” and that the specialist laws, branded “exotic” in the chamber, were to ensure people do not slip through the net.
He added that the burden of proof for a reasonable excuse is “not a novel concept”, as it is such for possessing a bladed article.
Baroness Chakrabarti said she was “speechless” at the minister’s response, lamenting that the Bill is, in her view, eroding the presumption of innocence.
Human rights group Amnesty International said: "Amnesty has long held the view that Police have a very broad range of existing powers at their disposal to deal with offences that may take place during a protest. We are concerned that the breadth of those powers already give scope for subjective over policing and potential abuse of those powers.
"For example, in a chilling suppression of the rights of a free press, in November 2022, Hertfordshire Police arrested and detained three journalists for reporting on a number of environmental protests taking place. One female reporter from LBC radio was reportedly held in a police cell for five hours.
"The arrest of journalists for reporting in these circumstances is a fundamental breach of universally held rights, which should serve as a chilling warning of the The Public Order Bill – Committee Stage Briefing, Lords dangers of increasing police powers in these areas and further undermines the credibility of the UK as a champion of media freedoms on the world stage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel