A legal challenge by rights group Liberty has won its court case against the government over its change to the definition of protests this morning.
The government had used ‘secondary legislation’ to push through a change to the definition of serious – avoiding proper parliamentary scrutiny – that meant anything more than ‘minor’ was ‘serious’, allowing police to lower the bar to escalating their actions to break up protests. The proposed changes had already been rejected in the Lords, so the government was using the move to bypass usual parliamentary process. Liberty said the government had no legal power to do this and the High Court has agreed that it acted unlawfully.
Liberty has demanded that police forces immediately cease the use of the new definition. The government has said it will appeal the ruling.
BBC: Move to extend police protest powers ruled unlawful
on May 21, 2024, 2:45 pm