Here’s a link to the laws concerning your right to peaceful protest.Here’s the gist…
YOUR RIGHTS:
Since the introduction of the Human Rights Act in 2000 there is a protected right to
peacefully protest.
The law protects peaceful communication and persuasion.
• Everyone has a right to assemble and protest peacefully
• The right to peaceful assembly is a fundamental right and is set out in Article 11 of
the Human Rights Act 1988.
• The police cannot ban public assembly altogether
• The police can impose conditions on location, numbers and length of assembly
BUT only to prevent serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious
disruption to the life of the community or if the purpose of the assembly is to
intimidate others.
Where people are peacefully demonstrating against job cuts then, provided this does not
result in damage to property, it is unlikely to breach such conditions.
Onerous conditions imposed by the police, such as limiting the time for a protest to 5 or 10
minutes or to 2 or 3 people,may amount to a breach of a protester’s right to assembly in
that they are effectively a ban and a ban is unlawful.
