Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Conclusion 7
Third Report - Policing of protests
Published 27 Feb 2024
Paragraph 67
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee Policing of protests All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The repetitive nature of the recent large Israel-Gaza protests places considerable resource constraints on the police. This places additional pressure on the Met, which, having failed to meet the Uplift target, already struggles to meet the regular demands of policing London. The protests further drain police resource with more than 4,000 cancelled rest-days, and the same police officers being deployed week in, week out. We are concerned both about the effect on other aspects of policing, and about the human impact and the wellbeing of these police officers. With many officers regularly being deployed from outside of the Met, and should these protests continue indefinitely, it stands to reason that forces across the country will be less able to carry out the everyday neighbourhood and response policing that is so vital to the public.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Third Report - Policing of protests (HC 369), paragraph 67, 27 February 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 April 2024 (deadline 27 April 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government responds to each recommendation without accepting any in terms, being "happy to consider" earlier post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 and stating it does not currently intend to publish a Hate Crime Strategy.
- On post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023, the government says the usual practice is review "between three and five years after Royal Assent" (May 2026 to May 2028 on the standard timetable) and is "happy to consider" reviewing sooner.
- On the Strategic Policing Requirement, it commits to review it every two years, with the next review "due in February 2025", and says it will consider whether public disorder and other national threats remain appropriate.
- On funding, it says it recognises the current police funding formula "is out of date" and is "currently undertaking a review", aiming to introduce new arrangements "as soon as possible" while focusing on their quality and longevity.
- On hate crime and the Walney review, it says it "does not currently intend to publish a Hate Crime Strategy" but keeps its approach under review, and will respond to Lord Walney's recommendations "in due course", without the end of May 2024 date sought.