Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Paragraph: 23
King's Coronation did not adequately test new Public Order Act powers.
Conclusion
Disruptive tactics by protest organisers led to the Government enacting new legislation to provide the police with more powers, via the Public Order Act 2023. Some of these powers were used for the first time during the policing of the King’s Coronation, but the occasion was not necessarily a good test of the effectiveness of these new powers as it did not involve large-scale use of the kind of tactics the Act was intended to address.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states it works closely with police to ensure they have the necessary tools to minimise serious disorder, citing the Public Order Act 2023 and further measures in the Crime and Justice Bill as evidence of this ongoing commitment.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
23
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
Response: The Public Order Act 2023 (the Act) received Royal Assent on 02 May 2023. The Act introduces a variety of measures including the new offences of locking on and causing serious disruption by tunnelling, alongside the introduction of Serious Disruption Prevention Orders which target protestors who are determined to repeatedly inflict disruption on the public. The Act does not prohibit protests, it targets the highly disruptive tactics used by a selfish few. The legislation has already partly come into force and has not led to the end of protests, which continue to occur peacefully and without police intervention. The usual practice for Government legislation is to carry out post legislative scrutiny between three and five years after Royal Assent. This would mean that the post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 would take place between May 2026 and May 2028 if the standard timetable were to be followed. The Government is happy to consider the report’s recommendation that we review the legislation sooner than this.
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