Page 65 - SyI Quarterly - Q3 and Q4 Edition 2023

Public authorities such as the Police and Councils have a duty not to interfere with the exercising of the
right of protest, and in terms of policing protests, law enforcement also have a duty to protect those
who have an opposing point of view. It is a difficult balancing act as we have seen through the media.
The recently enacted legislation, the Public Order Act 2023, the Police, Crime and Sentencing and
Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 1986 (serious disruption to the life of the community)
Regulations has introduced new measures that further affect and can be seen to respond to the
current types of tactics used to protest. 3

The new legislation has been met with criticism that the powers are overly restrictive and infringe on
human rights such as freedom of expression.

Controversial changes include:
• Increased police powers to add further conditions on a protest such as restricted noise levels,
prevention or hindrance that is more than minor to the carrying out of day-to-day activities and
disruption to time sensitive or essential goods/services. It also defines what essential goods and
services are as well as what a community can be (it can be any group of persons).
• Government is also able to create new regulations without going through Parliament where they
consider there is a ‘serious disruption to the life of the community’ and/or ‘serious disruption to the
activities of an organisation.’

Public Order Act 2023 and the effect on the Private Security ndustry

The Public Order Act 2023 enables the power to start civil proceeding to a civil injunction with attached
power of arrest. This power is seen as a safeguard and should only be used to ensure the quicker
enforcement against disruptive, protest activities such as trespass, obstruction of access to private land,
slowing or obstructing traffic, and erecting structures in specified locations. 4

It also enacts the various new offences of locking on, going equipped for locking on, interfering with
key national infrastructure and defines the meaning of serious disruption. Whilst the criticism of the
new legislation is around restricting the right of protest, what it has also done is clarify meanings which
to some extent has reduced the ‘grey areas’ when Law enforcement and Criminal Justice authorities
become involved.

The legal framework around dealing with Protest or Activism is littered with pitfalls and it is in the
interests of all in the private security business to ensure they have a working knowledge of all the
aspects including who has primacy in dealing with it on private land or public property.

How can businesses prepare for protest or activism?

Conducting a Threat Assessment is the starting point for an organisation to determine if they are ‘at
risk’ from protest and/or activism. This is a business risk and should therefore be part of their business
continuity approach rather than solely a security responsibility. An organisation can then identify what
people or assets are at risk and determine if training is required to mitigate that risk. How does your
business monitor threat? The threat monitoring role may be the responsibility of the Security provider
but if not, it may be worth discussing how the business monitors future threats specific to its own
operation.

1 https://www.thompsons.law/support/legal-guides/protest-rights-and-laws-in-the-uk
2 https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/human-rights
3 https://www.thompsons.law/support/legal-guides/protest-rights-and-laws-in-the-uk
4 https://www.college.police.uk/article/changes-legislation-policing-protests
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