Tag: courts

The Chilling Impact of UK Policing on Civil Liberties


Update on current issues in the UK

September 2025

Much of our coverage of human rights issues on this site features overseas countries and indeed there is a lot to write about. The latest edition of the Amnesty magazine (Autumn 2025, Issue 226) has a feature on the rise and arguably increasing number of authoritarian leaders for whom human rights are things to be suppressed by all means possible. The list includes Javier Milei of Argentina; Narendra Modi with his draconian anti-terrorism law used to target activists, journalists, students, protesters and others.

Vladimir Putin needs no introduction nor does Xi Jinping who enacts repressive laws, persecutes Uyghurs and the repression of Tibetan culture continue unabated. Others include Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi who is busy wooing anyone who’ll listen while engaged in suppression of any dissent and who has executed record numbers in 2024. Victor Orban who has increasingly targeted civil society while remaining a member of the EU. Netanyahu in Israel is well known and presiding over genocide in Gaza and intensifying violence and apartheid in the West Bank. He bans foreign journalists and the UN from entering Gaza.

‘Chilling effect’

But there are worries in the UK with more and more laws being passed to inhibit protests and empower the police to arrest or interdict such protests and those attending them. Palestine Action has been much in the news and the organisation was declared a terrorist group by the previous Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. A high court judge has ruled that the co-founder of PA can bring an unprecedented legal challenge to the Home Secretary’s decision. Mr Justice Chamberlain said the proscription order against the group risked ‘considerable harm to the public interest’ because of the ‘chilling effect’ on legitimate political speech.

At the recent rally on 6th September in London organised by Defend our Juries, police arrested nearly 900 people many of whom were carrying Palestine Action placards. A 3 day hearing starts in November and it will be the first time an appeal is allowed against a ‘terrorist’ organisation. The court has given permission for both Amnesty and Liberty to intervene in the hearing.

Human Rights Watch: World Report

HRW’s World Report amplifies the above comments in its section on the UK. Laws criminalising protest undermine democratic rights they note. They remain on the statute book and the Labour government shows no sign of repealing them. The 2023 Public Order Act, the 2020 Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act also remain on the statute book both of which increased police powers and act to limit free speech.

There are comments about the increasing disparity in wealth in the UK. On immigration and asylum it notes the failure to provide safe routes and how politicians and some media outlets have contributed to a hostile environment towards ethnic and racial minorities.

Policing

Since 2002, the police have had an increasing presence in schools under the Safer Schools Partnership programme. Liberty has found no evidence that this police presence has made them safer and that there is no reliable evidence that such presence reduces crime or violence. One problem is that police are mandated to report crime in schools even it may be inappropriate in the circumstances. Lack of funding for mental health leads police to step into roles unrelated to policing it notes One of their recommendations is that police a more supportive roles in PSHE activities. See the report for more details.

It cannot be argued that the UK is anywhere near the situation in some of the countries briefly mentioned above. Journalists are not murdered as in Russia, opposition politicians are not imprisoned for no reason which happens in Saudi, there are no second class citizens as in Israel. However, the slow drip of legislation and increasing police powers, widening use of facial recognition even in peaceful protests, a legal system largely the preserve of the very rich and elements of our media all too happy to laud clampdowns and arrests of those they don’t like are matters of increasing concern. We shall continue to highlight these issues in our posts.

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Jury trial protest


Protest at Salisbury Law Courts concerning freedom of juries to exercise their conscience

April 2024

A group of people from Defend our Juries staged a protest outside Salisbury law courts this week as part of their campaign to in support of a social worker Trudi Warner who was arrested for contempt of court while protesting outside the Inner London Crown Court. The issue concerns the right of a jury to exercise their conscience when taking their decision and relates to the question of defendants not being allowed to mention that they were engaged in a climate protest at the time of their arrest.

The last two posts concerning Hillsborough and the settlement by Hugh Grant of his legal case against the publishers of the Sun newspaper, NGN have mentioned the poor performance of the legal system in each. At Hillsborough, the relatives of those crushed at the disaster had to endure years of frustration and abuse not helped by the legal system and in the case of Hugh Grant, he has had to settle because the way the costs system works could lead him seriously out of pocket in the face of a publisher determined not to allow the hundreds of victims to have their day in court.

Another aspect which has surfaced recently is the passing of laws making protest harder and harder to undertake. The main motivation has been the environmental protestors who have carried out a number of eye-catching demonstrations which have highlighted the failure – in their view – of the government to take environmental matters seriously enough.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has a series of measures which make protests much more difficult and risky. The Police now have enhanced powers to limit marches and to issue fines if those involved create too much noise nuisance for example. There is no specific right to protest but there is a right to assemble and to free speech.

The Bill is part of a hugely worrying and widespread attack on human rights from across Government which will not only see basic rights reduced across the board, but will also strip people of the means to challenge or contest their treatment.

In its reports on the bill, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said the proposals are “oppressive and wrong”. It accuses the government of trying to create “new powers in areas where the police already have access to powers and offences which are perfectly adequate”.

The issue of juries and conscience is a complex one, and it is not the case that juries can exercise their conscience if that means ignoring the evidence given in the trial. But what might be happening here is a feeling that the government, the police and CPS are out of touch with public opinion concerning protests, and the climate. Juries are a key part of our history and are a means for 12 good men (and women) and true to exercise some common sense, a fact that sometimes seems to be lacking in our legal system. There will be many who feel that it is relevant to say that a defendant was on some kind of protest. They may also be feeling that the government has become too determined to inhibit protests. As we have noted before, many of the rights we take for granted today were achieved following sometimes years of protest. The suffragists campaigned peacefully for decades for the right for women to have the vote and were ignored. The suffragettes protested more aggressively and eventually achieved success. Female ministers keen on the new laws might wish to reflect they would not have the opportunity to do so had it not been for their sisters willing to protest and who suffered grievously when imprisoned.

Sources: BBC, Salisbury Journal, Amnesty

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