Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Deferred
Balance between protest rights and daily life generally maintained during recent protests.
Conclusion
There is clearly a balance to be struck between the right of people to protest and the right of people to go about their daily lives. We wholeheartedly support both these rights and recognise that finding the balance between competing rights can be challenging, particularly in terms of operational policing on the ground. In the context of the policing of recent Israel-Gaza protests, as with the policing of the King’s Coronation protests, we conclude that this balance was generally maintained, even if individual incidents inevitably tested that balance. Likewise, while the ongoing protests have tested the operational independence of the police, as have some of the communications around the protests, we conclude that it has ultimately been maintained. (Paragraph 66) Policing of protests 41
Government Response Summary
The government's response focuses on tackling hate crime through existing legislation and police resources, stating it does not intend to publish a Hate Crime Strategy, rather than directly addressing the committee's conclusion on the balance of protest rights and police operational independence.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
This Government is clear that all forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. We have a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity. Whilst the police are operationally independent and work in line with the College of Policing’s operational guidance to respond to hate crime, we expect the police to fully investigate these appalling offences and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. Our absolute priority is to get more police onto our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training. We delivered our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers and there are over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak in March 2010 before the Police Uplift Programme. Whilst the Government does not currently intend to publish a Hate Crime Strategy, we keep our approach to tacking hate crime under constant review. We remain committed to continuing to protect all communities from crime and have a number of programmes in place to do so. For example, the government has worked with the police to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.