My Lords, we now come to the most controversial part of the Bill: the Government’s new public order amendments. They have not been debated before in either House—and this debate started at 11.49 pm. Is this any way to conduct legislation?
I have amendments 319AA, 319AB, 319AC, 319BA, 319BB, 319BC, 319DA, 319DB, 319DC, 319L, 319M, 319N, 319P, 319Q, 319R, 319S, 319T and 319U in this group, all of which are, of course, amendments to the Government’s amendments. If I took just two minutes for each of those amendments, that would be 36 minutes. I will speak to each of the government amendments in turn; I will then add what Liberty has said to noble Lords in its excellent briefing on each amendment. I will then outline our proposed amendments to each government amendment in turn. We oppose all the Government’s amendments.
Government Amendment 319A concerns locking on. I have to ask: how much of a problem is this? Yes, it is inconvenient and annoying but it is temporary, and the police are becoming quite accomplished at unsticking. The amendment includes the phrase
“causes, or capable of causing, serious disruption”
so there does not even need to be serious disruption for this offence to be committed. It refers to serious disruption to two or more people or an organisation. Is a counterdemonstration to stop Holocaust deniers marching past a synagogue, or an Islamophobic organisation marching past a mosque, causing serious disruption to two or more people or an organisation? What does “capable of causing” mean? If it were on a different road or at a different time, it would be capable of causing serious disruption. But if it is 3 am on a Sunday, is that still capable of causing serious disruption? It is difficult to say because “serious disruption” will be defined by the Secretary of State in regulations only after the Bill has received Royal Assent.
Amnesty has talked about case law having established that protestors have a right to choose the manner of conduct of their protest. That is an important aspect of freedom of assembly. I too will quote from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which said that “most interviewees”—junior police officers—
“did not wish to criminalise protest actions through the creation of a specific offence concerning locking-on.”
Can the Minister explain why the Government have gone against what the police want where this is concerned?
Our Amendment 319AA would leave out “is capable of causing” so that the offence applies only if there actually is serious disruption. Amendment 319AB leaves out
“or are reckless as to whether it will have such a consequence”,
so that there must be an intent to cause serious disruption, while Amendment 319AC’s insertion of
“not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale”
is to probe whether an unlimited fine is proportionate to this offence.
Government Amendment 319B concerns going equipped to lock on. “Going equipped” offences have always been difficult as they often involve innocent articles where the intent has to be proved. You could buy a tube of superglue to repair a broken chair at home, then get caught up in a protest and be accused of going equipped for locking on, for example. Amnesty’s briefing asks, in relation to
“in the course of or in connection with”,
whether having a megaphone that might be used to shout encouragement to those intending to lock on is going equipped with something for use “in connection with” locking on. How broad is this offence?
Our Amendment 319BA would leave out “in connection with” to probe how broad that phrase is. I hope the Minister will be able to explain. Our Amendment 319BB would
“leave out ‘any person’ and insert ‘them’”
so that the offence applies only if the person carrying the equipment intends to lock on, while our Amendment 319BC is to probe whether an unlimited fine is proportionate.
Government Amendment 319C contains an increased penalty for highway obstruction. As the Minister mentioned, it does not matter if the road is already blocked. This is sentence inflation again—more people in prison for non-violent offences. The current offence involves only a fine. I can understand that the Government might want to lock people up, but sit-down protests are an important part of freedom of expression and assembly. The chilling effect if people fear being sent to prison will be considerable.
Government Amendment 319D is about the obstruction of major transport works. This is a blatant and direct attack on climate change protesters, covering such projects as HS2, with its impact on biodiversity; new roads, which will create more traffic; and new airport runways, such as the third runway at Heathrow. So when the Prime Minister carries out his promise to lay down in front of the bulldozers, he will be committing this offence. Amnesty questions whether construction workers picketing such sites would be committing an offence. Could the noble Baroness say whether this would apply to them?
Our Amendment 319DA would remove an undertaker
“taking … steps that are reasonably necessary for the purposes of facilitating, or in connection with, the construction or maintenance of any major transport works”,
because we feel that this is far too broad. Amendment 319DB would remove interfering with or moving apparatus, again because we think this offence is far too broad. Our Amendment 319DC probes whether an unlimited fine is proportionate for such an offence.
Government Amendment 319E provides the police the power to stop and search for anything made, adapted or intended for use in the course of or in connection with highway obstruction, public nuisance, locking on or the transport infrastructure offence. This is a massive expansion of an already contentious power—the power of the police to stop and search—at a time when trust and confidence in the police is low. It would apply the power to a whole range of new offences, providing the police with a whole new range of excuses to stop and search people. This power would allegedly be on the basis of reasonable suspicion, but other stop and search powers exercised on this basis result in the police allegedly “reasonably suspecting” black people eight times more than white people. The police did not ask for this power, and some do not want it, so why are the Government doing this?
Amnesty quotes the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which says:
“Some of the most intrusive and contentious … powers are those that allow the police to use force and to stop and search people.”
Police suggested 19 new powers they wanted in connection with policing protests, and this was not one of them. One police officer told HMICFRS that
“a little inconvenience is more acceptable than a police state”,
and HMIC agreed with the sentiment. This amendment could result in black and other minority ethnic people being deterred from protesting, and police could seize banners, placards and all sorts of legitimate props used in protests.
Government Amendment 319F would provide the power to stop and search without suspicion. We have already proposed the removal of the last remaining stop and search power without suspicion, Section 60 of the Public Order Act. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act, another suspicionless stop and search power, has already been repealed, and Section 60 needs to follow. When we debated an amendment to a previous part of the Bill, we set out comprehensively why stop and search without suspicion should not be exercised for anything, as it is hugely damaging to police-community relations and ineffective. Disproportionality increases—from being eight times to 18 times more likely to be stopped and searched if you are black—and only one in 100 searches under Section 60 resulted in a weapon being found, the purpose for which it is now being used by the police. Objects can be seized, retained and disposed of, as set out in regulations. We have only just seen the proposed primary legislation, let alone the regulations. We cannot think of any useful amendments to this provision; we simply oppose these powers being included in the Bill.
12.15 am
Amendment 319J relates to obstructing the police exercising the new stop and search powers. With the greatest respect to the Government, this is yet another example of “What wizard ideas can we think up in line with the Home Secretary telling the Tory party conference she was going to get tough on protesters?” This is a power that the police have not asked for and where the evidence shows that harsher penalties do not deter offenders.
We opposed a similar new offence of obstructing the police in connection with serious violence prevention orders and oppose this now for similar reasons, which I do not intend to repeat here. A month in jail for obstructing a police officer without assaulting him under current legislation is more than enough.
I turn to government Amendment 319K on serious disruption prevention orders. I am beginning to wonder whether the Government need some lessons in how to be creative, rather than cutting and pasting existing parts of the Bill to make new ones. Here we are again, with orders that are similar to, but in some respects worse than, serious violence prevention orders, because these can be made on not only conviction for a “protest-related offence” but application by the police without conviction, on the balance of probabilities. Like serious violence prevention orders, they can be made using inadmissible evidence, they can be extended indefinitely and breaching them is a criminal offence with terms of imprisonment attached.
One of the purposes is to prevent a person aged 18 or over, referred to as “P”, committing a protest-related breach of an injunction. What is an injunction other than an order to stop P from doing something that is unlawful—in these circumstances, something unlawful in relation to a protest? The Minister will contradict
me if I am wrong, but it seems that this new power, among other things, is to prevent someone who is already subject to an order preventing them doing something by the courts doing something in relation to a protest. I am not sure whether this is double jeopardy or just completely unnecessary. If they were to breach the injunction, they would most likely also be in breach of the serious disruption prevention order and could then be sentenced for breaching both the injunction and the “SDPO”. Is that a character from “Star Wars”?
In order to be subject to this proposed new order on conviction, the person must have been convicted of another protest-related offence that the court considers to be a protest-related offence on the balance of probabilities and relates to a different protest or a different day. The earlier offence must have happened within five years of the day of conviction for the offence for which the new order is being made, but the five-year period starts only when this new power comes into force and offences can be taken into account only if the person was over 16 at the time they were committed. The order can be imposed only if the person is 18 or over when it is made. If an offence was committed over a period of two or more days, or at some time during a period of two or more days, it must be considered to have been committed on the last of those two days. Is there a flowchart?
The order can be made whether P is sentenced or given a conditional discharge. It can be made based on evidence inadmissible in consideration of the protest-related offence. One of the reasons for imposing the new order can be to prevent P “causing or contributing to” another person committing a protest-related offence or breach of an injunction. What does that mean? Does shouting encouragement to others to engage in a sit-down protest amount to causing or contributing to another person committing a protest-related offence?
The order can require P to do anything described in the order or prohibit them doing anything described in the order. This includes prohibiting P using the internet to facilitate or encourage persons to carry out activities related to protest that are likely to result in serious disruption. The Secretary of State, by regulations —which we will not see until after Royal Assent—decides what serious disruption is, but who decides whether what P is doing on the internet is actually encouraging others to do something that is “likely” to cause serious disruption? How much of a restriction on free speech is this?
These orders cover 10 pages of amendments, mainly cut and pasted, with some variation, from serious violence reduction orders, but how are we, at this late stage, supposed to properly scrutinise these provisions? The Government may claim that we have had over a week, but have they not noticed that we were debating other proposals contained in this Bill until gone midnight on the last two Mondays, and last Wednesday our debates spanned 11 hours, including six hours without a break?
Amnesty says that this is an unprecedented and highly oppressive measure, tantamount to a ban on named individuals’ right to protest. In its report Getting
the Balance Right? Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said, of protest banning orders—which is what these are—
“such orders would neither be compatible with human rights legislation nor create an effective deterrent. All things considered, legislation creating protest banning orders would be legally very problematic because, however many safeguards might be put in place, a banning order would completely remove an individual’s right to attend a protest. It is difficult to envisage a case where less intrusive measures could not be taken to address the risk that an individual poses, and where a court would therefore accept that it was proportionate to impose a banning order”.
Quoted on page 137 of the report, some senior police officers said that protest banning orders would
“‘unnecessarily curtail people’s democratic right to protest’”
and that such orders would be
““a massive civil liberty infringement’”.
This is senior police officers quoted by HMICFRS. They further said that
“‘the proposal is a severe restriction on a person’s rights to protest and in reality, is unworkable’”.
If that is the case, why on earth are the Government introducing the orders, other than to fulfil a rash promise made by the Home Secretary at the Conservative Party conference?
As an illustration of how broad these proposals are, Liberty gave the following example—these are my own words. Somebody could be subjected to a SDPO who has never been convicted of an offence, who attended two protests in the past five years and, at those protests, based on inadmissible hearsay and on the balance of probabilities, contributed towards someone else doing something that was likely to result in serious disruption in order to prevent the person subject to the SDPO contributing towards another person doing something that was likely to result in serious disruption at some point in the future.
My Amendments 319L and 319M would change the burden of proof for imposing a SDPO to “beyond reasonable doubt” rather than “on the balance of probabilities”. Amendment 319N would remove the ability for a SDPO to be imposed unless the person has been convicted of a protest-related offence. Amendment 319P is to probe whether an unlimited fine for breaching a SDPO is proportionate.
Overall, these are outrageous proposals with serious consequences in terms of police powers, infringement of civil liberties and the creation of new offences, introduced in a wholly unacceptable way at the last minute at the Committee stage in the House of Lords, where the other place will have very little, if any, time to properly consider them, either in Committee or on the Floor of the House. These government amendments must be withdrawn and seriously reconsidered.