| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act to make provision about the police and other emergency workers; to make provision about collaboration between authorities to prevent and reduce serious violence; to make provision about offensive weapons homicide reviews; to make provision for new offences and for the modification of existing offences; to make provision about the powers of the police and other authorities for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting crime or investigating other matters; to make provision about the maintenance of public order; to make provision about the removal, storage and disposal of vehicles; to make provision in connection with driving offences; to make provision about cautions; to make provision about bail and remand; to make provision about sentencing, detention, release, management and rehabilitation of offenders; to make provision about secure 16 to 19 Academies; to make provision for and in connection with procedures before courts and tribunals; and for connected purposes. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2022 c. 32 |
| Introduced by | Robert Buckland, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (Commons) Baroness Williams of Trafford, Minister of State for Home Affairs (Lords) |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 28 April 2022 |
| Commencement | 28 April 2022 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 |
Status: Current legislation | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Records of Parliamentary debate relating to the statute from Hansard | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of the United Kingdom |
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The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (c. 32) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.[1][2] It gives more power to the police, criminal justice, and sentencing legislation, and it encompasses restrictions on "unacceptable" protests, crimes against children, and sentencing limits. It was passed by the Houses of Parliament on 26 April 2022 and received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022.[3][4]
The Act gives the Home Secretary broad powers to make regulations without reference to Parliament and to decide on the type of protest deemed acceptable or unacceptable by the state. "The Act implements a recommendation by the Law Commission to introduce a statutory offence of public nuisance and abolish the existing common law offence. This will provide clarity to the police and potential offenders, giving clear notice of what conduct is forbidden.
The act reduced the maximum sentence for public nuisance offences from life imprisonment to 10 years imprisonment.[5] The new law also allows senior police officers to give directions and impose conditions, including beginning and end times of protests, on those organising or taking part in either a procession or assembly that the police decide are necessary to prevent disorder, damage, disruption, noise impact or intimidation.[5]
The law is controversial, and led to protests under the slogan "Kill the Bill" in various British cities before it had come into force. It has received fierce criticism both locally and internationally by various politicians, human rights groups, journalists and academics, due to the impact on free expression, freedom of speech and the right to protest in the United Kingdom.[3][6][7][8] Amnesty International referred to the bill as a "dark day for civil liberties" and "deeply-authoritarian".[3] Measures that were rejected in this bill by the House of Lords, which gave further powers such as banning individuals from protests outright, were reintroduced the following year under the Public Order Act 2023 and came into force.[9]
- ^ "Justice overhaul to better protect the public and back our police". Home Office. 9 March 2021. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ Cross, Michael (9 March 2021). "Tougher sentences on menu in 'restore confidence' bill". The Law Society Gazette. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
- ^ a b c "UK: Dark day for civil liberties as 'deeply-authoritarian' Policing Bill passed by Lords". www.amnesty.org.uk. Amnesty International. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ "Boost for public safety as four justice bills receive Royal Assent". GOV.UK. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ^ a b "Protest powers: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 factsheet". GOV.UK. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
Text was copied from this source, which is available under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. © UK Parliament.
- ^ Lock, Helen (25 January 2022). "UK Votes In A Bill That Threatens the Right to Protest. Here's What You Need To Know". Global Citizen. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ Pang, Jun (2 December 2021). "5 ways the Government's Policing Bill just went from bad to worse". Liberty. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ Specia, Megan (23 March 2021). "What Are the 'Kill the Bill' Protests in Britain All About?". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ "Peers called on to kill public order bill targeting climate activists". The Guardian. 1 November 2022. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
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