Policing bill reached the end of its journey through parliament last week

Posted: 6th May 2022

The UK government’s controversial policing bill reached the end of its journey through parliament last week, after months of back-and-forth.

Despite a public outcry, the bill was finally passed with measures that will give the police powers to restrict “noisy” protests, one-person protests and public assemblies. This adds to already included measures that will severely restrict our protest rights and directly attack Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. But our fight’s not over yet.

I want to say a huge thank you if you took action over the past year – whether you added your name to our 800,000-signature-strong open letter, took part in a demonstration, wrote to your MP or spoke up on social media to defend the right to protest and the rights of nomadic people.

Your voice put power behind our campaign. You helped keep the policing bill in the public eye – and firmly in the media spotlight.

This was far from an outright win for the government. With your help, we campaigned tirelessly alongside allies like Liberty, Bond (the international development network), the Quakers, and Friends, Families and Travellers to stop some of the worst parts of the bill from becoming law.

Thanks to our efforts, in January the House of Lords blocked some of the bill’s most draconian measures – including police powers to stop and search protesters and banning individuals from protests.  

And we helped build a growing, diverse movement across civil society that will be better prepared to defend the Human Rights Act from upcoming government legislation. That’s certainly something to celebrate.

That said, this law will make it far more difficult for the public to speak out. Protestors will face harsh fines and disproportionate prison sentences for breaching police restrictions on protests. What’s more, it effectively criminalises the nomadic way of life for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.  

Read on below to find out more about the impacts of the new policing act – and how we can come together against growing authoritarianism.FIND OUT MORE

Once again, thank you so much for all you do.

All the best,

Dave Timms,
Head of Political Affairs, Legal and Planning