Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the financial impact on police forces of lock-on protests.

Lock-ons can take a long time to remove, drawing police resources away from local communities. Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is spent policing protests where this tactic is used. The lock-on offence and the associated stop and search power will allow the police to pro-actively tackle protesters who plan to lock-on.

The Public Order Bill's Impact Assessment can be found here: Impact Assessment - Public Order Bill - 17May22.PDF (parliament.uk)