Briefings • CPNs

Record number of prosecutions for Community Protection Notices in 2022

Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are on-the-spot legal orders that can be issued on the basis of a police or council officer’s opinion that somebody’s conduct has a ‘detrimental effect on the quality of life’. There is no requirement for the officer to gather evidence, or even to speak to the CPN recipient, before issuing the notice. People have received CPNs banning them from wearing a bikini in their garden, looking at their neighbours, entering the town centre, feeding birds in their garden, or using leather footballs in a school playground. If a person fails to appeal a CPN within a 21-day window…

CPNs

Interview: ‘9 out of 10 CPNs could be overturned or varied with a proper legal defence’

Moira Macfarlane is a director at ACA Law in north London, with an extensive experience of defending clients who have received Community Protection Notices. In this interview, she says how CPNs are being issued as a ‘tick-box exercise’, and gives advice on legal aid for CPN appeals. What is your experience defending clients with CPNs? I regularly deal with CPNs at both the police station and court. It tends to be that I see the same people repeatedly. For example, one of my clients was recently dealt with for breach of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), he had been found with a…

CPNs • Interview

Interview: ‘The lack of judicial oversight means we sometimes forget that CPNs are legal powers, with legal consequences.’

Janine Green is a specialist in community safety and anti-social behaviour (ASB), and provides training and consultancy for organisations including councils, police and housing providers (https://www.janinegreenasb.co.uk/). She is interviewed here about the use of Community Protection Notices (CPNs) – on-the-spot legal orders that can impose significant restrictions on individuals’ liberties – and also about the government’s ASB Action Plan, which proposes to substantially increase penalties for violation of CPNs, and to allow them to be issued to children as young as 12. What is the problem with CPNs? While I have seen examples of CPNs being used to effectively and responsibly to…

Vetting

We should call time on the UK’s perverted and counterproductive approach to child protection

(Guest post by Alex Tabor). After living in Belgium for 11 years, our family decided to move back to England in the summer of 2022. I was looking forward to bringing back my two small children who were born in Belgium and went through the Belgian nursery and kindergarten system. However, it did not take long before reality bit and I was immediately confronted with England’s warped and unhealthy approach to child safety. See if you can guess the place I’m about to describe. My wife and children arrive at the gates and before entering I had to produce ID. Then, before…

CPNs

Campaign Against Community Protection Notices

What are Community Protection Notices (CPNs)? Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are powers contained in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, imposing legal restrictions or requirements upon individuals. Police and councils can issue these notices without going through a court, if they believe that somebody’s behaviour is having a ‘detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality’. The CPN must be preceded by a Community Protection Warning (CPW), which is issued on the same grounds. The CPW states that if the person does not follow the requirements then a CPN will be issued. It is a criminal…