Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSCB) is a proposed Act of the United Kingdom Parliament sponsored by the Home Office and Secretary of State for the Home Department Priti Patel. The PCSCB proposes to "overhaul" police, criminal justice, and sentencing legislation, and encompasses disparate areas of existing law including knife crime, protests, crimes against children, and sentencing limits. The jurisdiction of the proposed law applies to England and Wales.

Protest and public assembly

Part 3 of the PCSCB deals with protests and public assembly and aims to widen the range of conditions the police can impose on static protests, including how much noise is acceptable. Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said the Act 'updates' the Public Order Act and drew a distinction between peaceful protest and "activities which inhibit the lives of people." Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Justice, said regarding the Bill and protests "We’ve got to think about the sometimes huge inconvenience caused to other people going about their lawful business..."

The pressure group Liberty claimed the Bill "threatens protest" and human rights lawyer Adam Wagner highlighted how the proposals would criminalise "serious annoyance". Broadcaster and writer Kenan Malik warned the Bill reduced the right to protest to "whispering in the corner".

Opposition

When the PCSCB was first published, the opposition, the Labour Party, said it would "scrutinise" the Bill to ensure it puts victims of crime first. By 14 March 2021, the party had decided to vote against the Bill. In the subsequent second reading of the Bill, this change of position was explained and given context by opposition MP Clive Lewis citing the death of Sarah Everard and the vigil held following her death as key factors.

The Bill was welcomed by the Police Federation. In contrast with the Police Federation, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners registered their disagreement with the Bill. On the topic of proposed legally-binding restrictions on protests, Chair Paddy Tipping stated “I think politicians would be wise to leave decisions to the responsible people … they’ve got to leave people to make local decisions in local circumstances.”

Condemnation

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers condemns the PCSCB which passed its second reading on 16 March 2021. We are gravely concerned that this Bill contains multiple threats to the right to peaceful protest, lacks adequate measures to protect women, will serve to criminalise communities and is a bonfire of our basic civil liberties.

We further note that despite its gravity, the PCSCB has been rushed through by the Government at an alarming and opportunistic rate; giving less than a week between its publication and second reading. This is a derisory timescale, and has meant that the general public, affected communities MPs and their staff, have been obstructed and denied the opportunity to fully understand what the devastating impact of this Bill will be. The Bill passed with an exclusively Tory vote of 359 votes for and a cross party vote of 263 against, with Labour MPs being told to vote against it.

This Bill should be seen as a continuation of the slide to authoritarianism that this country has seen in recent times at the hands of a Tory government. This attack on our basic civil liberties should be seen in the same context as the Trade Union Act 2016, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill (the ‘Spycops Bill’) and the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill.

Police Crackdown Bill

The PCSCB, dubbed the ‘Police Crackdown Bill’, will:

• Further extend already draconian police powers, giving them new powers against static protests, granting the ability to impose allocated times and where they can be held, and enforce maximum noise limits (amongst other measures);

• Prevent protests outside Parliament;

• Expand powers to shut down peaceful demonstrations;

• Introduce new offences for protesters, including on the basis of causing “serious annoyance”;

• Increase penalties and lower the thresholds for breaching police conditions on protests;

• Reduce public access to the countryside by creating a trespass offence, which will serve to criminalise the way of life of Gypsy and Traveller communities.

It is also worth noting that the Ministry of Justice, the courts and the wider justice system have been allocated no extra funding from the Treasury in its recent Budget to accommodate the demands of the PCSCB.

As well as serving to criminalise communities, the implications and scope of this Bill are huge for any individuals calling for economic, environmental and social change, and further criminalises the right to challenge existing power structures.

We urge the government to scrap the above provisions. We urge the Labour Party to do more to oppose the Bill and continue to stand against it. We call on our members, comrades, concerned activists and targeted communities to publicly condemn the PCSCB. The Haldane Society stands in solidarity with the individuals, groups and MPs who have publicly opposed the Bill, as well as those most affected by it.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Did POLICE turn Bristol ‘Kill the Bill’ protest into a riot?	blog post	22 March 2021	Mike Sivier	It is impossible to condemn the people for the Bristol ‘Kill the Bill’ riot when we know it is entirely possible that it was engineered by Priti Patel and the police.

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