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United Kingdom Statutory Instruments

The Public Order Act 1986 creates offences commonly used by United Kingdom police to deal with public disorder and violence.

Contents 1 Part I - New offences 2 Part II - Processions and assemblies 3 Part III - Racial hatred 4 The Act and Article 11 of ECHR

Section 1 - Riot

Section 2 - Violent Disorder

Section 3 - Affray

Section 4 - Fear or Provocation of Violence

Section 4A - Intentional Harassment, Alarm or Distress  

added by section 154 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Section 5 - Harassment, Alarm or Distress

Section 11 - Advance notice of public processions 

requires at least 6 clear days' written notice to be given to the police before most public processions, including details of the intended time and route, and giving the name and address of at least person proposing to organise it; creates offences for the organisers of a procession if they do not give sufficient notice, or if the procession diverges from the notified time or route

Section 12 - Imposing conditions on public processions 

provides police the power to impose conditions on processions "to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community"

Section 13 - Prohibiting public processions 

Chief Officer Police has the power to ban public processions up to three months by applying to local authority for a bannering order which needs subsequent confirmation from the Home Secretary.

Section 14 - Imposing conditions on public assemblies 

provides police the power to impose conditions on assemblies "to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community", but the conditions are limited to the specifying of:

• the number of people who may take part,
• the location of the assembly, and
• its maximum duration.

Section 14A -Prohibiting trespassory assemblies 

added by section 70 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, to control "raves"

• creates offences of use of words or behaviour or display of written material (section 18), publishing or distributing written material (section 19), public performance of a play (section 20), distributing, showing or playing a recording (section 21), or broadcasting (section 22), if the act is intended to stir up racial hatred, or possession of racially inflammatory material (section 23)
• new sections 29A to 29N added by the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 create new offences for acts intended to stir up religious hatred

The Act should be considered in connection with Article 11 of European Convention on Human Rights, which grants people the rights of (peaceful) assembly and freedom of association with others.