Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department issues on the responsibilities of (a)her Department and (b) the National Police Chiefs Council on (i) collection and (ii) publication of data on the use of powers given to police under the (A) Police, Crimes, Sentencing and Court Act 2022 and (B) Public Order Act 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 Act made by sections 73, 74 and 79 of the Police, Crime and Sentencing Courts Act 2022. 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. There is a statutory commitment for the data to be published by June 2024.

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 (NPCC). The Home Office and the NPCC, therefore, recognise the importance of collecting information on the following: 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.

There is no statutory duty to collect and publish data on the powers given to the police under the Public Order Act 2023, however, the government is required to submit a memorandum to the relevant departmental select committee with a preliminary assessment of how the Act has worked within three to five years of Royal Assent to allow the committee to decide whether it wishes to conduct further post-legislative scrutiny.

In addition, the Home Office publishes extensive data on police use of stop and search and will expand this publication to the use of the new powers provided for in Public Order Act 2023.