Police, Crime, Sentencing, And Courts Bill – A Guide For Local Authorities And Police
04/11/2022
One of the most controversial pieces of legislation of recent times, the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill (PCSC Bill) 2021, is entering the concluding stages of its passing through Parliament. At its final reading in the House of Lords which took place in mid-January, the Government lost by 14 votes on certain aspects of the Bill, an astonishing defeat that illustrates the strong feelings surrounding the new powers proposed by the legislation.
There have been protests across the UK in response to the anticipated legislation under the banner of “Kill the Bill”. In this article, we provide a quick guide as to the new powers conferred by the PCSC Bill and why it is upsetting so many people.
What is the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill?
The PCSC Bill covers an enormous range of issues surrounding law enforcement, including measures to:
- Enhance the protection provided to emergency workers and the well-being of police officers and non-uniform staff.
- Provide the police with the tools required to tackle crime and disorder and use a multi-agency approach to preventing violent crime.
- Increase the time serious criminals spend in custody, including ending the automatic release after a person serves half their sentence in cases involving serious sexual and violent offences. A Whole Life Order will be the starting point when sentencing for the pre-meditated killing of a child.
- Reforming the community sentences scheme to address the underlying drivers of offending and ensuring the sentence provides an appropriate level of punishment. The use of electronic monitoring will also be extended.
- Develop and strengthen alternatives to custody for children to ensure rehabilitation is promoted. The threshold for sending a child offender to prison will be raised while at the same time ensuring that children who commit serious and violent crimes receive the appropriate punishment.
- Develop and strengthen Secure Schools, which the government sees as the future of youth custody.
- Modernise and update existing court processes to ensure justice can be accessed and good service is provided to all users.
- Whilst upholding the right to peaceful protests, providing the police with powers to stop disruptive protests that infringe on the rights and freedoms of others.
- Strengthen police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments.
- Most of the protests and objections centre around the final two aforementioned points.
What powers will the police have under the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill regarding protests?
At present, the police can only place restrictions on a protest if they can show it may result in “serious public disorder, serious damage to property, or serious disruption to the life of the community”. Specific measures can be put in place to control the route that marches take. In cases of large protests, the organisers, police, and local authority officials negotiate details in advance of the demonstrations.
Under the PCSC Bill, police will have the power to state what time protests can start and when they must finish and impose conditions on unjustifiably noisy protests that cause harm to others or prevent an organisation from operating.
Protesters who do not comply with the rules face fines up to £2,500. People convicted of damaging statutes and memorials could be sent to prison for up to ten years, whereas the current maximum term is three months imprisonment.
The PCSC Bill also makes ‘locking on’ – described in the Bill as “the attachment of an individual to another individual, to an object or to land, or an object to another object or to land” a crime which carries a prison sentence of up to 51 weeks.
Will the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill protest provisions negatively affect human rights?
The Human Rights Act 1998 and common law enshrine and recognise the right to peaceful protest and assembly. As Lord Denning M.R. noted in Hubbard v Pitt [1976] QB 142:
“Here, we have to consider the right to demonstrate and the right to protest on matters of public concern. These are rights which it is in the public interest that individuals should possess; and, indeed, that they should exercise without impediment so long as no wrongful act is done. It is often the only means by which grievances can be brought to the knowledge of those in authority—at any rate with such impact as to gain a remedy. Our history is full of warnings against suppression of these rights.”
Violent protests and those organised with violent intent, however, do not benefit from legislative protection.
The right to protest is not an absolute right, and police have the power to limit assemblies and protests if they pose a risk to public safety or there is a threat of criminal activity.
Final words
Most of the details in the PCSC Bill that were defeated in the House of Lords are reversible in the House of Commons but certain new aspects of the legislation, such as the introduction of a series of public order offences designed to prevent the types of Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion protests of 2021 cannot be re-introduced and are therefore scrapped from the Bill. This does not mean the offences will never be enacted, they may well resurface in a stand-alone public order bill later in the year.
The history of public protest is filled with long-drawn-out and bitter legal battles over whether police have correctly used their powers. Given the current furore around the right to protest elements of the PCSC Bill, we are likely to see more court cases over the coming years. On the positive side, however, the Bill’s provisions do provide greater powers to the police to ensure protests do not conflict with the rights of others and allow local authorities to manage the potential impact of future demonstrations.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these court updates, these articles are intended as a general overview and not intended, and should not be used, as a substitute for taking legal advice in any specific situation. Neither Zurich Municipal, nor any member of the Zurich group of companies, will accept any responsibility for any actions taken or not taken on the basis of these articles.
