Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) – introduced in October 2014 under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act – allow councils to ban any activity they believe to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’. A Manifesto Club FOI survey published in February 2016 showed that 130 PSPOs had been issued by 79 local authorities – including 9 bans on swearing, three bans on rough sleeping, and 12 bans on loitering or standing in groups. Since then, the rate of new PSPOs has further increased, leading to increasingly bizarre new criminal offences. Here is our selection of the 20 worst new PSPOs,…

Councils have brought in a series of PSPOs since our March briefing. Some of these orders target activities that are already crimes – such as urinating and defecating in public – which is likely to be an issue of being able to punish with spot-fines rather than court. Others include specific activities – remote control cars, skateboarding – regardless of whether these are causing a problem. And then there are new vague pseudo-crimes – ‘loitering…so as to cause ASB’: what does that mean? – or causing harrassment, alarm and distress. It is trouble enough when such vague terms are brought before the…

The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act went live on 20 October. This included ‘public spaces protection orders’, which allow councils to ban any activity which they judge to have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’ of an area. A Manifesto Club report found that powers would be used to ban rough sleeping, ball games and ‘inappropriate dress’. Here is a three-month review of how councils are using these powers… Kettering Borough Council is consulting on a public spaces protection order in the town centre, which would regulate the following activities: street drinking, skateboarding, charity collectors, anti-social driving and parking,…