Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (SDPOs) have come into force, covering England and Wales. They come under section 30 of the Public Order Act 2023, passed by Parliament last year. They’re court orders; breaching one will be a crime.
They’re aimed at disruptive protesters, such as tunnellers, or those who ‘lock-on’ by attaching themselves to an order and preventing movement or access. The Home Office reports that in the last some months, there have been more than 1,000 protests and vigils, with police making over 600 arrests nationally.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “The public has a democratic right to protest and this government will always uphold that. However, recent months have shown certain individuals are just dedicated to wreaking havoc and causing severe disruption to the everyday lives of the public. This is why we have introduced these new powers to ensure that anyone who ignores warnings from our law enforcement cannot continue to cause turmoil unpunished.”
Meanwhile the climate change campaign group Just Stop Oil commented that the orders were ‘an authoritarian measure to stifle democracy and free speech’ and stated that they would continue to take proportionate action.
Guidance
An SDPO lasts for up to two years. As for what the orders will cover, statutory guidance issued by the Home Office names ‘disrupting access to essential goods or services including the supply of money, food, energy, fuel, communication systems, places of worship, transport facilities, educational institutions and services relating to health; hindering day- to day activities (including the making of journeys) or maintenance works due to physical obstruction; and delaying or preventing the delivery of time sensitive products’. As it adds, however, ‘there is no exhaustive definition of serious disruption’, reflecting that Just Stop Oil (JSO) and other protester groups have switched targets and tactics to adapt to such changes in the law. For example only last month JSO reported fly-posting on a Labour Party office; and disrupting a a Labour fundraising evening event; among other acts against Labour figures. JSO has also publicised two men who glued themselves to the entrance gates of the Royal Courts of Justice in London where JSO supporters had appeared.
JSO has set out how and why it’s ‘visiting’ MPs’ homes; and ‘occupied’ an insurance building with fellow protest group Extinction Rebellion, which was carrying out similar protests early last month and in February, such as outside the offices of insurer AXA UK in the City of London.
According to the guidance, these orders are for police to ‘take a proactive approach’. The authorities can ask the court to make such an order when someone is convicted of a protest-related offence. Or, police (in civil proceedings, and not Crown prosecutors) can apply for such an order, against someone who’s been twice in the last five years convicted of a protest-related office; or has made a protest-related breach of an injunction. An order may require someone to ‘present themselves to a police officer at midday each day during a week of planned protest action by the protest group their past conduct was associated with’; if they don’t, that would count as a breach of the order, itself an offence.
Photo by Mark Rowe: JSO graffiti, London South Bank, September 2023.
