Big Brother – watching you?

There are fears of a state-sanctioned police clampdown on street evangelists, now that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has come into effect.

The new laws give police greater powers to crack down on disruptive noisy protests, which could include a single person protest such as an open-air preacher. Officers now have the power to prevent protests or impose conditions on them if they reasonably believe the protest may cause serious disruption to or cause a significant impact (includes alarm or distress) on those nearby.

The government denies that the measures undermine freedom of expression and free speech, but police have already arrested and fined street preachers – such as Andrew Sathiyavan – even before the Act came into force.