Worried by the new Police Act? You should be

Noisy and disruptive protests are, frankly, a nuisance to us all. At the time of writing, the prospect of serious disruption for many rail passengers with the planned June’s rail strikes is bad enough, but at least travellers can plan ahead and take a different route (or drive, if they can afford the fuel).

But try driving through a busy city and finding the road blocked with climate change protesters chained to their vehicles – all in a good cause, of course; but creating not merely a public nuisance but serious disruption.

The new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 strengthens the powers of the police to crack down on these types of activities by preventing protests or imposing conditions on them. In many cases, more robust police powers are necessary. For example, their previous public order powers were (according to the police) insufficient to deal with the high profile and highly disruptive tactics used by Extinction Rebellion back in 2019.