The decriminalisation of poverty: Liberty’s guide to Community Protection Notice Appeals

Liberty, alongside Streets Kitchen and the Museum of Homelessness, has published a new guide setting out how individuals can appeal a Community Protection Notice (CPNs) if they are issued one.

The guide covers:

• the process of appealing a CPN
• the potential human rights arguments available with reference to the relevant case law
• templates for sending an appeal, including details of how to find the right person to send it to
• details of solicitors who represent individuals who have been found to breach any conditions placed on them.

What are CPNs?

Community Protection Notices (‘CPNs’) are handed out by police and council officers to prohibit individuals from engaging in certain behaviour they deem antisocial. In practice, they’re often used to criminalise poverty.

CPNs may place conditions on individuals which effectively impose blanket bans on begging, including prohibiting individuals from walking down certain streets, being in groups of two or more, or even just being in possession of a open cups in a designated area. This can raise significant human rights concerns, including potential breaches of the right to respect for a private and family life, and the right to freedom of assembly.

The right to appeal a CPN is covered by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, and must be started within 21 days of receiving the CPN.

Liberty has long warned that it is all too common for the police and local authorities to abuse their powers against very vulnerable people in an attempt to move the ‘problem’ out of sight and remove them from any kind of support network they may have developed or need. To quote our friends at Streets Kitchen, “Blatant attempts to criminalise those with nothing is wrong. Homelessness can never be a crime, the fact that it exists should be”.