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Protest restrictions are unlawful

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22 May 2024
Issue: 8072 / Categories: Legal News , Public , Human rights
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The High Court has quashed restrictions to public protest introduced last year by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman

In R (National Council for Civil Liberties) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1181 (Admin), Lord Justice Green and Mr Justice Kerr held that Braverman acted unlawfully when she introduced regulations lowering the threshold at which police can impose conditions to ‘more than minor’ disruption.

Under the Public Order Act 1986, the Home Secretary can use secondary legislation to clarify the meaning of ‘serious disruption’. The court held Braverman acted ultra vires.

Shameem Ahmad, CEO of Public Law Project, which intervened in the case, said the ruling ‘recognises that our rights and constitution cannot be unilaterally and arbitrarily undermined by the executive’.

Issue: 8072 / Categories: Legal News , Public , Human rights
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