Public Order Act 1986

(asked on 2nd June 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many operationally independent forces are providing data on section 12 and section 14 Public Order Act conditions as part of the Annual Data Requirement; if she will make it her policy to publish any data provided on an annual basis and in a searchable format, broken down by each use of Section 12 and 14 powers and including details of the protest, the circumstances that led to the imposition of restrictions, what they were, whether arrests were made and how many people were arrested; and if she will make a statement


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 12th June 2023

As part of the 2023-24 Annual Data Requirement (ADR), the Home Office introduced a new mandatory requirement for police forces in England and Wales to record data on the use of section 12, 14 and 14ZA under the Public Order Act 1986 (1986 Act). The ADR also included a request for retrospective data on the use of these powers for the period of 28 June 2022 to 31 March 2023.

As part of this data collection, information is being requested on: the date and time of the protest; the conditions imposed; the triggers; the theme of the protests/assembly; demographic information such as age, sex and ethnicity; the level of authorisation and the number of resultant arrests.

Data will be collected from police forces in due course and the intention is to publish this data in the Summer of 2024. As is usual for all data collections, Home Office analysts will assess the quality of the data collected before making a decision on which information will be included for publication on GOV.UK.

The section 12, 14, and 14ZA ADR was developed in collaboration with National Police Coordination Centre, who are overseen by the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

In addition, the Home Office will prepare and publish a report on the operation of sections 12, 14, and 14ZA of the 1986 Act as amended by sections 73, 74, and 79 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This will be published and laid before Parliament by 28 June 2024.

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