Policy paper

Public Order Bill: overarching documents

These documents relate to the Public Order Bill.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Details

Overarching documents concerning the Public Order Bill.

The Public Order Bill received Royal Assent on 2 May 2023 and will now be known as the Public Order Act 2023.

Published 11 May 2022
Last updated 30 August 2023 + show all updates
  1. Updated the Public Order Bill: equality impact assessment to include additional measures which impact our assessment and to reflect that the act is now (partly) in force.

  2. Page updated following Royal Assent.

  3. Updated version of Public Order Bill factsheet published.

  4. Content under titles 'Introducing serious disruption prevention orders, a new preventative court order targeting protestors who are determined to repeatedly inflict disruption on the public' and 'What’s the threshold for imposing an SDPO?' amended to reflect current version of the bill.

  5. Factsheet added on proposed power, introduced by the Public Order Bill, for a Secretary of State to seek an injunction.

  6. Addition of paragraphs to Public Order Bill factsheet on proposed new powers to: (1) enable a Secretary of State to apply for an injunction (2) allow the creation of abortion clinic buffer zones.

  7. Factsheet updated with the following addition of content: 1. new heading 'Criminalising causing serious disruption by tunnelling' 2. under existing heading 'Extending stop and search powers for police to search for and seize objects (such as lock-on devices) that may be used in the commission of a protest-related offence' 3. under new heading 'Extending the powers to manage public assemblies to the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police' 4. under new FAQ 'Why is it necessary to criminalise tunnelling?'.

  8. First published.