Greenpeace Calls for Ministers to Remove Protest Clauses from Crime and Policing Bill
Greenpeace is urging ministers to eliminate protest clauses in the Crime and Policing Bill currently moving through parliament. The organization utilized Freedom of Information requests to uncover the number of people arrested between 2012 and March 2025 on suspicion of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance – an offense under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 commonly used by police to disperse protesters from the streets.
Custody Concerns
Raj Chada, a partner at the law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, expressed to The Guardian: “There was a significant surge in arrests for public nuisance towards the end of XR … which were previously arrested for obstruction of the highway, and the majority of those cases never progressed.” The offense was previously only recognized under common law, but new legislation granted police the authority to apprehend and detain protesters, as well as collect DNA, fingerprints, and photographs.
Chada elaborated: “It provided a means for police control during demonstrations, as it allowed for easier imposition of bail conditions to prevent individuals from entering central London. It also enabled potential custody of individuals, keeping them on bail for several months until the XR action concluded, either resulting in no further action or charging them with a lesser offense like obstruction of the highway.”
Placard Perspective
Tim Crosland, director of the environmental litigation charity Plan B, remarked: “The Greenpeace research confirms what we’ve witnessed firsthand in recent years. Part of the crackdown on civil society involves the deliberate amplification of grounds for arrest. This serves as an intimidation tactic and unlocks search and seizure powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, granting police the ability to confiscate phones and laptops and conduct dawn raids on those exercising their democratic rights.”
As four prominent environmental and human rights organizations – Amnesty International UK, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Liberty – launch a national advertising campaign to defend the right to protest, real protesters are showcased in videos on digital billboards across London, Birmingham, and Manchester, holding placards that read ‘I’m protesting in here to avoid arrest out there’.
Suspicion Statistics
Researchers at Greenpeace requested data from the Metropolitan Police on arrests and charges for public nuisance offenses from 2012 to March 2025. Their findings revealed 67 arrests and eight charges for conspiring to cause a public nuisance between 2012 and the end of 2018, compared to 638 arrests and 18 charges since 2019, indicating a nearly tenfold increase in arrests. The rate of arrests resulting in charges also decreased from approximately 12% to below 3%.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police stated: “The threshold for arrest is reasonable suspicion that an offense has occurred. The threshold for charging someone is considerably higher.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, Greenpeace’s efforts to challenge protest clauses in legislation and shed light on the increase in arrests for public nuisance offenses demonstrate the organization’s commitment to defending civil liberties and democratic rights. As the debate over the right to protest continues, it is essential for individuals and advocacy groups to advocate for transparency, accountability, and the protection of fundamental freedoms.
This article is based on a press release from Greenpeace with additional reporting and editing from The Ecologist.
