Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that interim Serious Crime Prevention Orders are not used to target individuals engaging in lawful political dissent.

Serious Crime Prevention Orders are a powerful tool for preventing and disrupting the activities of the highest-harm criminals involved in serious crime. SCPOs are not intended to target individuals who conduct themselves lawfully, including lawful political dissent.

SCPOs were established in the Serious Crime Act 2007. Schedule 1 of the Act sets out the serious offences for which an SCPO can be imposed. This includes a range of serious offences including drug trafficking, slavery, people trafficking, terrorism and firearms offences. Under section 2(2)(b) of the Act the court can impose an SCPO to prevent offences not in schedule 1 where the court considers the offence is sufficiently serious it should be treated as if it were set out in that list.