Protest rights

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

In recent years, successive governments have made it harder and riskier for people to protest. New restrictions, new offences and a raft of new penalties from arrest and imprisonment to electronic tagging and unlimited fines have given police immense powers to crack down on demonstrations.

Each new law criminalises acts that have never before been considered offences, and grants ever more extreme police powers to enforce it. Each new measure makes it more difficult and more dangerous for people to exercise their rights and express their views.

The Government’s Crime and Policing Bill is the latest would-be law threatening everyone’s right to protest.

FACE COVERINGS

If the Crime and Policing Bill is passed, police would have the ability to create ‘no mask zones’ at protests for up to 24 hours. And they’d have the power to arrest or fine anyone breaching this condition.

Many people can only protest safely with a face covering, and this ban would stop them from speaking out on issues they care about. 

REPEAT PROTEST RESTRICTIONS

In 2023 and again in 2025, Liberty stopped the Government restricting protests that cause “more than minor” disruption. Now, the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill proposes plans to introduce a raft of new measures targeting the new offence of ‘repeat disruption’. These are kneejerk responses to momentary public opinion, but their effects will reach much further and last much longer.

If passed, senior police officers would have to consider the “cumulative disruption” caused by previous protests in the area as a reason to ban protests, regardless of whether they were organised by the same people or focused on the same issues.
They would also decide what area is restricted, with no clear rules on how big or small an area can be. This means we could see borough or city-wide bans on protests, simply because a different demonstration took place previously.

WHY SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED?

The Crime and Policing Bill builds on the ever-expanding web of protest restrictions we’ve seen from successive governments, and will make it almost impossible for people to know how they can safely make their voices heard.

Banning face coverings will have a disproportionate impact on marginalised groups who want to make their voices heard by protesting. And there are no safeguards in place for those with genuine reasons for wearing a face covering, meaning you might not be able to prove any exemptions until court.

This will particularly impact disabled people and those who are clinically vulnerable, who may only feel safe attending a protest if they can wear a face covering to protect themselves from infection.

Those who wear face coverings for religious and cultural reasons, such as Muslim women wearing the niqab, or those wearing keffiyehs at Palestine solidarity protests, would also be criminalised by this law.

Banning repeat protests won’t just impact frequent large-scale marches; it could restrict emergency demonstrations on issues of grave importance, or counter-protests organised by communities standing against hate.

History has proven that when we come together, bit by bit we change things for the better. But restricting us to protesting on an issue once will effectively silence our voices, protect the powerful and prevent meaningful change.

Putting restrictions on what we wear and where we demonstrate will not only make it harder for people to make their voices heard – it will strip our fundamental right to protest to the bone.

WHAT ARE WE CALLING FOR?

Protest makes our democracy more resilient, our government more responsive and our society more inclusive.
Protest has given us some of our most cherished rights and freedoms, from votes for women to weekends for workers, from LGBTQ+ rights to laws against racial discrimination.

We’re calling on the Government to introduce robust safeguards to the Crime and Policing Bill to allow people with religious, medical, or other exemptions to be able to protest safely – without the fear of being criminalised.

Additionally, we’re opposing government plans to restrict repeat protests and calling for this amendment to be scrapped from the Crime and Policing Bill.

One day it may be our views that are ignored, our community that’s under threat. One day we may need to come together to make our voices heard. On that day, we too will have the right to protest: positively and powerfully.

But only if we defend that right. Right now.