Public Order Act: are harsher sentences for protesters necessary?

Parts of a controversial public order bill that grants more authority to police to take action against non-violent protesters will come into force today, just days before the coronation of King Charles III.

The Public Order Act 2023 will “give police the powers to prevent disruption at major sporting and cultural events taking place this summer in England and Wales”, the Home Office said in a statement. Several measures come into force today, including new sentences of up to six months or an “unlimited fine”, for protesters who practise tactics such as “locking on”, in which they physically attach themselves to buildings or fences.

The bill, which came about following a rash of disruptive protests in recent years, has led to broad public debate about how demonstrations should best be handled by police and whether sentences are still too lenient.

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the bill will help to “put people who try to carry out these guerrilla tactics behind bars” adding that he was “determined not to let selfish protesters get away with causing ­disorder and misery – so today, we end the chaos”.

‘A grave threat’

The bill arrives just before King Charles III’s coronation, at which anti-monarchists have vowed to protest.

Ahead of the weekend’s pageantry, the Home Office’s Police Powers Unit sent warning letters to several activist organisations, including anti-monarchist campaign group Republic, The Guardian reported. The letters explained that new powers had been brought forward to prevent “disruption at major sporting and cultural events”.

Lawyers have advised Republic that the warning could be viewed as “intimidatory”, days before their planned demonstrations in central London. Other groups, including Extinction Rebellion, said they have been sent similar letters, the newspaper said.

The new bill “openly targets groups such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, all of which have used disruptive tactics in their protests against the government”, CNN said.

According to Quinn McKew, the director of the Article 19 campaign group, the measures introduced by the bill represent “a grave threat to the right to protest in England and Wales”.

In an opinion article for the i news site, McKew said that the legislation also “risks setting the UK’s human rights record back by decades – further jeopardising our already fragile reputation as the international champion of freedom and democracy”.

‘Daily lives ruined’

Punitive sentences have been handed out this year to activists from Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain who have engaged in disruptive protests.

In a statement yesterday, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “The public shouldn’t have their daily lives ruined by so called ‘eco-warriors’ causing disruption and wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money.

“The selfish minority must not be allowed to get away with this. We are giving our police and courts the tools they need to stop this chaos and I back them in making full use of these powers.”

Last month, five Insulate Britain protesters were jailed for five weeks for causing a public nuisance by blocking major roads during their campaign of civil resistance in 2021. In a separate case, two protesters from climate group Just Stop Oil, who scaled London’s Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, were sentenced to five years in prison.

Handing down the sentence to Just Stop Oil’s Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, Judge Collery KC commented that the strict punishment was designed to deter copycat actions.

“You have to be punished for the chaos you caused and to deter others from copying you,” he told the activists.

Despite the judgements, a recent poll by The Sun newspaper found that 46% respondents wanted tougher sentencing for protesters.

The poll also found that 44% of people surveyed think that police are too lenient towards protesters, while just 13% said they are too harsh.