{"id":23680,"date":"2014-01-09T11:30:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T16:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=23680"},"modified":"2014-01-09T11:30:28","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T16:30:28","slug":"the-anti-social-behaviour-crime-and-policing-bill-a-revolution-in-law-making-creating-an-unprecedented-form-of-blank-cheque-state-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/01\/09\/the-anti-social-behaviour-crime-and-policing-bill-a-revolution-in-law-making-creating-an-unprecedented-form-of-blank-cheque-state-power\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, “a revolution in law-making, creating an unprecedented form of blank-cheque state power”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josie Appleton<\/a> on the amazingly restrictive bill wending its way through the UK parliamentary process:<\/p>\n

The bill includes Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs), which can be issued against anybody whose conduct — or threatened<\/em> conduct — is capable — on the balance of probabilities — of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person.<\/p>\n

Few things in the public space are incapable of at least annoying someone. Some people can be annoyed by busking, ball games, skateboarding, street preaching, protests, and all the rest of it. As the former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald QC judged: \u2018It is difficult to imagine a broader concept than causing \u201cnuisance\u201d or \u201cannoyance\u201d. The phrase is apt to catch a vast range of everyday behaviours to an extent that may have serious implications for the rule of law.\u2019<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

However, the problems don\u2019t stop with clause 1. Other clauses in the bill include Public Space Protection Orders (clause 55), which allow local authorities to ban any activity which has a \u2018negative effect on the quality of life\u2019 of the area. This ban can be applied to particular groups or individuals, and can also impose conditions with which such groups must comply. This is drafted so broadly it could target anything from sleeping rough, collecting for charity, public drinking, begging, feeding pigeons, or smoking in parks. Indeed, the lead civil servant agrees that the law could be used against groups \u2018if there is a localised issue\u2019, such as a \u2018group of Goths\u2019 or \u2018twentysomethings listening to music in a park\u2019.<\/p>\n

At base, this bill represents a revolution in law-making, creating an unprecedented form of blank-cheque state power. The aim is explicit: rather than create specific powers, it seeks to remove limitations to local authorities\u2019 actions. The civil servant says: \u2018We don\u2019t want to put too many constraints in the legislation.\u2019 Well, there is no danger of that.<\/p>\n

The bill completes the transformation of the role of the British local authority, from a limited body concerned with public provision to a summary law-maker and public-order power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josie Appleton on the amazingly restrictive bill wending its way through the UK parliamentary process: The bill includes Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs), which can be issued against anybody whose conduct — or threatened conduct — is capable — on the balance of probabilities — of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10],"tags":[343,322,458,98],"class_list":["post-23680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-law","category-liberty","tag-crimeandpunishment","tag-nannystate","tag-parliament","tag-police"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-69W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23681,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23680\/revisions\/23681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}