Bond reacts to UK House of Lords vote on controversial Public Order Bill

This evening (7 Feb 2023) concluded Report Stage on the Public Order Bill in the House of Lords and the Bill will now return to the House of Commons. The Bill paves the way for the UK government to introduce a range of new powers to restrict demonstrations and erode protest rights. However, Peers did succeed in mitigating some of the harm by:

Voting to remove stop and search without suspicion (Amendment 47)
Voting to remove Serious Disruption Prevention Orders without conviction (Amendment 63)
Voting to introduce greater protections for journalists and other observers of protest (Amendment 54)
Voting down government amendments to introduce new police powers to pre-emptively restrict protest (Amendment 48)
Voting down government amendments that would have removed the reasonable excuse defense from the offences of willful obstruction of the highway and public nuisance (Amendment 50)

However, in a missed opportunity, several amendments were not put to a vote today including amendment 46 on suspicion-based stop and search, and amendment 59 on Serious Disruption Prevention Orders made on conviction; alongside amendments to remove the criminal offices of locking on and being equipped to lock on which were not put to a vote during day one of Report Stage.

In reaction to this evening’s outcome, Stephanie Draper, CEO at Bond, the UK network of NGOs, said:

“While we were pleased Peers voted to mitigate some of the harm this Bill will have on the right to protest, we are extremely disappointed that key amendments were not pushed to a vote. At a time when the right to protest is under attack around the world, the government should be setting a positive example to countries that have clamped down on civic space. Instead, the UK is mirroring this trend and is becoming increasingly authoritarian by making it harder for people to protest. How can the UK call other world leaders out for undermining democracy if we are doing the same thing here?”