This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
The right to protest peacefully is an important one for the civil liberties of UK citizens. The bill criminalises protests which cause "serious annoyance" with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. This is a flagrant abuse of our rights and such language should be removed from the bill.
More details
The police have the appropriate powers to punish wrongdoing, be it during a protest or elsewhere. Peaceful protest is fundamental to freedom of expression in a democracy such as ours, allowing citizens to have their voices heard in the space between elections.
Protest is designed to cause 'annoyance' by making those it is directed to feel pressure from the protesting group. Therefore, this bill can, in effect, criminalise any protest that the government or police would like stopped.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:
Do not restrict our rights to peaceful protest: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012
Remove single person protest clauses in Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/578875
Do not pass the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579242
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.