Dispersal powers

CPNs • Dispersal powers • Policy response • PSPOs

ASB Powers Guidance: The civil liberties protections that are ignored

Anti-social behaviour powers such as Community Protection Notices (CPNs) and Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) allow officers to impose legal restrictions if they think someone’s behaviour is having a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’. These powers are incredibly broad, but there are a number of important civil liberties protections in the Statutory Guidance. Unfortunately, these protections are generally ignored. We are calling on the Home Office and MPs to ensure that Statutory Guidance is respected, including through amendments to the current Crime and Policing Bill. Here is an outline of protections in the Statutory Guidance. 1. There should be no…

Dispersal powers • Public space

Doncaster council’s draconian dispersal form

This is the form that Doncaster Council ‘city centre engagement officers’ use to bar people from the city centre. It shows that the pettiest council officers are being given absolute powers to order people around. The officer can ban someone if the officer thinks that the person ‘is likely to cause annoyance’ to any other person. The form allows the officer to specify when the person must leave the area (immediately/in 15 mins/30 mins/1 hour) The officer must state the ‘anti-social behaviour giving rise to the dispersal’ (this is the only slight requirement of evidence, but given the broad nature of the…

Briefings • Dispersal powers • PSPOs • Public space

Doncaster officers issue more dispersals than most police authorities

A small group of Doncaster Council officers are issuing more dispersal notices than most police authorities. In 2023, the council’s ‘City Centre Engagement Officers‘ issued 504 orders to people to leave Doncaster city centre for 24 hours. The officers counted 90 breaches, and issued 12 fixed penalty notices for breach. Data from police authorities in the year up to July 2023 found that only four authorities – Hampshire (990 dispersals), Northumbria (833), Norfolk (753), and the Metropolitan Police (522) – issued more dispersal notices than these council officers. The 14 other police authorities able to provide the information issued fewer dispersals than…

Blog • Dispersal powers • PSPOs

North Somerset criminalises causing ‘annoyance’ in council carparks

North Somerset Council is planning a series of broad-ranging PSPOs, which would criminalise many otherwise innocent parts of life. Here is our response to the consultation (you can respond to pspoconsult@n-somerset.gov.uk). Specific types of property PSPO – We do not think it is necessary, reasonable or proportionate to create new offences of causing ‘annoyance’ in a library, council carpark, museum, public toilet, or council building (‘Engage in behaviour as to damage to property, nuisance and/or annoyance’). No doubt that hundreds of people create annoyance for each other in these areas every month: because they are taking too long paying for the parking ticket,…

Blog • Dispersal powers • PSPOs

East Devon Council to give dispersal powers to council officers

East Devon District Council is planning a PSPO banning aggressive begging, intoxicating substances, and behaviour causing harassment, alarm and distress. See the draft PSPO and consultation. See the Manifesto Club response below:   We are particularly concerned about the following elements of this proposed PSPO: – A ban on ‘aggressive requests for money within a street or public open space’: What is meant by ‘aggressive requests for money’? A truly aggressive request for money isn’t begging – it is mugging. That is theft, and already an established criminal offence. Those who are begging are not mugging or threatening people to hand over their money:…

Briefings • Dispersal powers • PSPOs

ASB dispersal powers: The crime of being found in a public place

One of the new powers in the wide-ranging Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (which came into force on 20 October) is the power to disperse groups or individuals. These new dispersal powers are more draconian than the old dispersal powers (available section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 and section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003), in the following ways: – Areas do not have to be designated a dispersal zone in advance; a police inspector can on-the-spot designate any area a dispersal zone; – The new powers allow for the confiscation of property; – The new powers…

Booze bans • Dispersal powers • Leafleting bans • Public space

Banned in London – Online map

You are in danger of unwittingly committing an offence if you stray into one of 435 special zones in London. The boundaries of these zones are often unmarked and within them many everyday activities are either banned or restricted. A new Manifesto Club online Google map, Banned in London, reveals the 435 special zones that now cover half the area of the UK capital. In these areas, people can be fined or prosecuted for activities that would not otherwise be an offence – including leafleting, protesting, dog walking, gathering in groups, and drinking in public.   Go to the Banned in London…