Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of replacing the common law offence of public nuisance with a statutory offence of intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance.

When drafting the measure on Public Nuisance for Part 3 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Government considered the Law Commission’s recommendation to restate the common law offence of public nuisance in statue provided in their report "Simplification of Criminal Law: Public Nuisance and Outraging Public Decency" .

The Law Commission held a public consultation which informed the recommendations of their report and argued that this restatement will provide clarity to the police and potential offenders, in comparison to the common law offence. We also consulted HMICFRS, who also agreed with this recommendation. Having considered these, the Government decided to introduce the statutory offence of public nuisance and replace the existing common law offence.