The controversial Bill, which is currently at committee stage, covers a range of protest, policing and sentencing measures.
The Bar Council said the clause on ‘harassment in a public place’ would essentially render annoying speech a criminal offence, and went further than the current law, while proposals to criminalise damage to war memorials could create situations where simply removing a bunch of flowers led to proceedings in the Crown Court. It warned the Bill would allow the government to prevent protests it didn’t agree with and give ‘expansive powers to the police, which encompass the arrest of one individual who is independently protesting’.
It said: ‘There are clear tensions between the Bill and the freedom of protest and expression protected under the European Convention on Human Rights.’
It also opposed any legislation allowing for remote juries, which it said would make jurors ‘spectators rather than participants in a trial’.
See below for Michael Zander QC's three-part series on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
