Resisting anti-protest measures

'Britain Yearly Meeting said the bill posed ‘a serious threat to civil liberties in the UK’ and briefed key parliamentarians in October.'

Friends lobbied hard against new ‘draconian’ laws which introduced unprecedented limits on the right to protest. Nevertheless Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) was ‘devastated’ when the House of Lords voted through the final measures of the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill, despite their vociferous advocacy. The vote on 26 April meant that UK police now have unprecedented powers to restrict protests they deem ‘too noisy’. The verdict came one year after the bill was introduced and three months after back-and-forth between the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

With the Quakers in Criminal Justice group warning the bill will push the prison system to ‘breaking point’, BYM said it also prevents Gypsy and Traveller communities from pursuing their traditional way of life.

Grace Da Costa, BYM’s public affairs and media manager, told the Friend that she was ‘extremely disappointed that over a year of tireless campaigning by Quakers and others has not persuaded the government to make any concessions on the protest and trespass parts of this bill. I’m grateful to all the Friends who have written to their MPs… We did persuade many MPs and peers to speak out against it… For now I’m focusing on everything we have achieved… preventing the government from introducing Serious Disruption Prevention Orders and expanding “stop and search” powers.’

Sadly, most of these measures soon reappeared in the Public Order Bill, as well as new offences around locking-on and tunnelling. BYM said the bill posed ‘a serious threat to civil liberties in the UK’ and briefed key parliamentarians in October. MPs passed the bill by 276 votes to 231; it is now going through the House of Lords.

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