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LEGAL ADVICE FOR ACTIVISTS

13. Police powers to regulate processions and assemblies

Contents

13.1 Section 12 - Public Processions
13.2 Section 14 - Public Assemblies
13.3 Frequently Asked Questions
13.4 Police Powers at Common Law to Control Assemblies
13.5 Police Powers to Disperse - Section 30 Anti-Social Behaviour Act

Sections 12 &14 Public Order Act 1986

If you engage in regular protest you will inevitably encounter the police’s use of Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986.

13.1 Section 12 - Public Processions

This confers power on the senior officer to impose conditions on processions, which he reasonably believes are necessary to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community. He may also impose such conditions if he believes that the purpose of the persons organising it is the intimidation of others with the view to compelling them not to do an act they have a right to do, or to do an act they have a right not to do.

If he reasonably believes any of the above, then he may impose conditions on persons taking part in the procession as are reasonably necessary to prevent the above, including conditions as to the route of the procession or prohibiting it from entering any public place specified in the directions.

Anyone who knowingly fails to comply with a condition is guilty of an offence.

13.2 Section 14 - Public Assemblies

As with Section 12, the senior officer may impose conditions on public assemblies, which he considers are reasonably necessary to prevent serious public disorder etc. But unlike Section 12, the conditions he may reasonably impose are in this case limited to specifying:

a) the numbers of people who may take part,
b) the location of the assembly, and
c) its maximum duration.

On most big animal rights demos these days there is a Section 14 notice in place, which gives the location where the assembly may and may not take place, and the time at which it must finish.

An assembly is defined by Section 16 of the Act as consisting of two people or more.

Anyone who knowingly fails to comply with a condition is guilty of an offence.

13.3 Frequently Asked Questions

Doesn’t there need to be more than two people to form an assembly?
Not any more. Section 57 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill 2003 amended Section 16 of the Act to reduce the numbers of people necessary to form an assembly from twenty to two. This amendment was introduced after intensive lobbying by the police and the pharmaceutical industry for more powers to be available to deal with animal rights protests where less than twenty people were present. They finally got what they wanted, so activists can expect even more widespread use of Section 14 in the future.

What is a “public place”?
Section 16 of the Act states that a public procession or assembly is one which takes place in a public place. It defines what is meant by “public place” as follows: any highway, or any place to which the public has access, on payment or otherwise, as of right or by virtue of express or implied permission. This therefore includes supermarket car parks and garage forecourts for example, to which the public has “implied permission” to enter.

Do I have to apply for permission from the police if I am organising a procession or an assembly?
If you are organising a public assembly, then you do not have to inform the police in advance. But if you are organising a procession then you have to give the police written notice in advance. This notice must specify the date when it is intended to hold the procession, the time when it is intended to start it, its proposed route, and the name and address of the person (or of one of the persons) proposing to organise it. It must be given to the relevant police station for the area of the procession at least 6 days beforehand or as soon as practicable.

It is an offence – punishable by a fine - to organise a demo if the notice provisions are not complied with, or if the date, the time or route of the actual procession differs from the date, time or route specified in the notice. It is a defence to show that you had no reason to know of these differences.

Can I be arrested for a Section12 or 14 offence, and what is the maximum punishment?
Offences under sections 12 and 14 are only punishable by a fine. Breach of Section 12/14 is not, therefore, an “arrestable offence”. There is only a very limited statutory power of arrest namely where a constable in uniform reasonably suspects you of committing the offence. As the offences are not “arrestable”, you cannot be arrested after the offence has been committed (for example, the next day) and if you are arrested your house cannot be searched.

Does a Section 14 or 12 notice have to be in writing?
A Section 12 or 14 notice only has to be in writing where it is issued in advance by the chief constable of police.

Who is the “senior officer”?
The powers conferred can only be exercised by the “senior officer”. The identity of the senior officer depends on the nature of the procession. If it is an advertised march or assembly and a Section 12 or 14 notice is issued in advance, then it can only be exercised by the chief constable of police and it has to be in writing. But in the case of impromptu marches or processions, where there is no advance notice, then the power must be exercised by the senior officer present at the scene and does not have to be in writing.

A notice is invalid if issued by the wrong officer. For example, in 2002 police officers arrested some animal rights activists for assembling in Derby town centre, contrary to a Section 14 notice. On the day in question the activists had taken the police by surprise, as the advertised assembly was elsewhere in the neighbouring county. This meant that no advance Section 14 notice had been issued to control the assembly in Derby on that day. A section 14 direction was then issued to deal with the protestors in Derby. However this was not issued by the senior officer at the scene, but by a more senior officer based at the police headquarters. This meant that the Section 14 notice was issued illegally and all of the activists were subsequently acquitted

Can I be arrested if I have not been told about the conditions?
It is an offence knowingly to fail to comply with one of the Section 12 or 14 conditions. So it would be a defence to say that you had no actual knowledge of the conditions – for example because you had not been told or, in the case of a notice issued by the chief constable, you had not received or been shown a written notice.

The police sometimes use a megaphone to issue a Section 14 notice at the scene of an assembly, Activists arrested for breach of Section 14 are often subsequently acquitted because they simply could not hear what the police were saying and therefore had no knowledge that a Section 14 notice was in existence.

If I am marching, can the police still use Section 14?
No they can’t, they would have to use Section 12, which governs marches. The police sometimes wrongly seem to think that Section 14 gives them the power to outlaw any form of protest other than the assembly on the day in question. In April 2003, the police in Cambridgeshire attempted to use Section 14 to control a march - and failed. On the day in question, there had been an advertised demonstration at Huntingdon Life Sciences in Huntingdon. A Section 14 was issued here, and this stated amongst other things that no other assemblies could take place anywhere in the county.

Some activists marched that day through Cambridge town centre (in the same county). They were stopped by the police from marching, and then arrested for assembling contrary to the Section 14 notice, which had been issued at Huntingdon. The case was eventually dismissed when it was shown that the only reason why they were assembling was because they had been forced to do so when stopped by the police. They had been attempting to march and this was not a failure to comply with the Section 14 direction.

Were the conditions legal?
The police can only impose conditions, which are authorized by the statute. The police cannot, for example, impose a condition on an assembly stating that you cannot blow whistles or bang drums. Such a condition would be unlawful, and you could not be convicted for failing to comply with it. However, the presence of one such unlawful condition does not in itself invalidate the entire Section 14 notice.

According to a High Court case, the police cannot impose conditions under Section 14 as to the route protestors take to and from an assembly, nor can they restrict the numbers of people who may leave the assembly at any one time. The police often include a condition in a Section 14 notice nowadays that you cannot assemble anywhere in the entire county other than the area they have designated. Although this point has yet to be decided in court, we believe that such conditions are unlawful, as the power only exists to regulate a particular assembly.

Are Sections 12 and 14 compatible with my human rights?
As with all legislation, the police must not issue conditions, which are incompatible with your fundamental right to protest. Any condition imposed must be “proportionate” to the harm – for example, serious disorder etc – that the police are seeking to prevent.

If, for example, the police sought under section 12 to divert a procession planned to go through a city centre to the outskirts of the city, you could argue in court that this amounted to a denial of your right to freedom of expression as it was not necessary to divert the march to prevent disorder. If the judge agreed, this would render the Section 12 direction unlawful and any failure to comply with such an unlawful direction would not be a criminal offence.

Can the Police Ban a Procession or Assembly?
The police can ban public processions if they fear that they will result in serious public disorder. And they can ban “trespassory assemblies” for similar reasons. But these powers are rarely used, especially now that assembly on the verge of a public highway can amount to “reasonable use” of the highway.

The police have no power to ban public assemblies under Section 14, and if they impose conditions which effectively amount to a ban – for example a condition that an assembly may only last for 5 minutes – these can be challenged in court.

13.4 Police Powers at Common Law to Control Assemblies

The police do not always use Section 14 to control assemblies. The police’s duties at common law include preventing a breach of the peace, and protecting public safety. They are empowered to take all reasonable steps to prevent a breach of the peace and to protect the safety of the public where they reasonably suspect that it is necessary to do so.

This common law power is most likely to be used by the police where they reasonably suspect that a breach of the peace will occur. They then have the power not only to arrest those whom they believe are causing the peace, but also to take any other steps necessary to prevent one from occurring. These include ordering a crowd of protestors to disperse and stipulating where a demonstration may take place.
The common law power to prevent a breach of the peace is used extensively by the Metropolitan police officers in London. The police often use (or abuse) this power to contain protestors for hours on end, not allowing them to move at all. This has happened on numerous demonstrations by Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) and also on a couple of the ‘May Day’ protests in London where thousands of protestors were penned in for several hours. These tactics are currently the subject of claims by several of the protestors for unlawful imprisonment and for denial of their rights to freedom of assembly.

This power can also be used by the police to enter and remain in public meetings, and even to enter domestic dwellings, where they reasonably believe that a breach of the peace is likely.

Now that the Public Order Act 1986 defines assemblies as consisting of only two people or more, we anticipate that the police will be more likely to use Section 14 to control assemblies in future rather than using their powers at common law. This is because it is often difficult for the police to prove that a breach of the peace is about to occur, and they have been sued extensively in the past for wrongful arrests and assaults as a result. It will be much easier for the police to use Section 14, because they do not have to reasonably apprehend an immediate breach of the peace.

13.5 Police Powers to Disperse - Section 30 Anti-Social Behaviour Act

Section 30 Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 empowers a police officer in uniform to disperse groups consisting of 2 persons or more where he reasonably believes that their behaviour or presence has resulted or is likely to result in members of the public being alarmed or distressed.

Failing to comply is an offence publishable by up to 3 months’ imprisonment. An officer in uniform can arrest anyone whom he reasonably suspects to have committed an offence. The maximum penalty is 3 months’ imprisonment or a fine.

There must be an authorisation in force covering the relevant locality. This must be issued by an officer of at least the rank superintendent and must be in writing. There is no requirement that the officer directing the group to disperse has to produce a written copy of the authorisation. But you could always check at the local police station to make sure there is an authorisation in force.

Although this legislation is relatively new, there are already reports of it being used against protestors. It is open potentially to widespread abuse by the police as it is in the nature of protest that someone is likely to be alarmed or distressed by it.

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