Recent protest activity from a minority of individuals utilising guerrilla tactics has caused misery to the hard-working public, disrupted businesses and put lives at risk.
Indeed, fuel supply has been disrupted by protesters tunnelling under oil terminals and cutting the brakes on tankers, and police officers have spent hours trying to unglue people’s body parts from some of the UK’s busiest and most dangerous motorways. This includes groups like Just Stop Oil, which alone has cost the police over £5.9 million in a matter of months.
In light of this, the Government has therefore legislated to equip the police to better manage and tackle dangerous and highly disruptive tactics, as well as prevent major transport projects and infrastructure from being targeted by protestors. This follows the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act, which introduced a number of measures to enable the police to better manage protests.
The new Public Order Act implements several new measures.
Firstly, this Act introduces new criminal offences of locking-on and going equipped to lock-on and makes it illegal to obstruct major transport works such as HS2. Further, this Act creates a new criminal offence for interfering with critical national infrastructure and extends stop and search powers for police to search for and seize articles related to protest-related activity. Finally, it also introduces Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs), where a breach of the order would constitute a criminal offence.
Regarding buffer zones, MPs agreed to add Clause 9, which introduces areas around abortion clinics and hospitals (buffer zones) where interference with, and intimidation or harassment of, women accessing or people providing abortion services would be an offence – to the Public Order Act. I voted in favour of this Clause, as I believe in the right of women to access abortion services freely and safely.
I am confident that these new changes to public order law will put a stop to the relentless reoffending and significant disruption caused by a selfish minority of protesters which infringe upon the rights of the British public to go about their daily lives in peace.