Since 2014 the Manifesto Club civil liberties group has been the primary defence against ‘busybody’ powers, which allow UK council or police officers to issue on-the-spot legal orders. These orders – called Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) and Community Protection Notices (CPNs)…
Fining for profit is when private companies are employed to issue fines, and are paid per fine issued. Such blatant incentives lead to all kinds of dodgy practices – wardens following people, issuing fines to people who dropped an item by mistake,…
The Criminal Justice Bill is the biggest attack on our freedoms in public spaces in a decade. It must be stopped at all costs. If this Bill is passed… 1. A senior police officer will be able to ban activities in public…
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (aka the ‘Busybodies’ Charter’) has led to absurdities such as pensioners being fined for riding bicycles or feeding the birds, and bans on loitering or standing in groups. Now the government wants to amp…
The ‘Busybodies’ Charter’ represents the most draconian and unchecked power ever given to officials in the UK. Now the government is planning to extend it further, including giving the police power to write their own laws. We need you to join us in the…
What is fining for profit? Private security companies are employed by local authorities to issue penalties for criminal offences such as littering or anti-social behaviour. These companies are generally paid per fine issued, which creates an incentive to issue as many fines as possible. According to a recent Manifesto Club report, 66 councils employ a private company to issue fines for criminal offences. 90% of these councils pay the company per penalty issued, or use another system that means that the more fines they issue, the more money they make. Fining for profit began over a decade ago, with a single company…
(A guest post by Debbie Conibere, founder of Lyme Regis dog owners group). The Lyme Regis’s Loving Dog Owners, Visitors & Friends Facebook Group is asking Dorset Council not to use a PSPO (Public Spaces Protection Order) from 1 January 2021 to enforce a new blanket ban on exercising dogs off lead on the only safe and accessible beach in Lyme Regis. Instead, the group requests that laws already in place regarding dog ownership are enforced appropriately. This will ensure loving dog owners are not unfairly penalised by only targeting those who break the law. This new PSPO ban will stop the…
The Joint Commission on Human Rights (JCHR) has launched an inquiry on the freedom of expression, and issued a call for submissions. One of the questions they are investigating is: ‘Is there a need to review the wording and application of Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) legislation?’ The Manifesto Club submitted a response to the inquiry, arguing that PSPO legislation is not fit for purpose and should be urgently reviewed. Read our full submission on the parliament website.
A petition has been published on the UK Parliament website calling for the review and reform of Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). The petition states: We believe that local authorities are unfairly implementing Public Space Protections Orders that adversely impact dog owners, cyclists, bikers and others, without adequate consultation or consideration of the impact of these orders. The Government should review reform the rules for creating PSPOs, so the intention of an order has to be set out clearly in the consultation survey, consultations must have a minimum response within a certain time period, and evidence must be produced to support the…
The UK government has brought through 247 legal orders that have imposed the most dramatic restrictions on our liberties ever. Most of these ‘statutory instruments’ were published only minutes before they came into force. There was no parliamentary discussion or vote. 34 orders were not even laid before parliament before they came into force. This government by decree must end. Current measures include: A ban on people meeting in groups of more than six – across the UK. Local lockdown bans on people in meeting up indoors with people from other households – in areas including Scotland, North-East England (from Wednesday), Birmingham,…
We are experiencing the most overwhelming restriction on civil liberties that has ever occurred in peacetime. This is an exceptional situation, but the use of state power still needs to be checked and scrutinised. The Manifesto Club is collaborating with the Freedom Law Clinic to monitor the overzealous or unreasonable enforcement of coronavirus regulations. We will be running online seminars for law students and producing a briefing document. If you have experienced unreasonable police enforcement, or have an incident to report, please do get in touch.
(Guest blog post by Peter Lloyd). The police have been in trouble before for blocking ‘away’ football fans who are simply going to a match to support their team. In 2010 Greater Manchester Police paid £200,000 to around 80 Stoke City supporters who were incorrectly prevented from going to a game in Manchester and falsely imprisoned by containment, and then escorted out of the city and back to Stoke. Rules were supposedly changed to prevent this happening again but it looks like the problem has not gone away. Three years ago Wrexham fans successfully sued Humberside Police in a similar case. So furious…