United Kingdom: Prime Minister Mr. Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK government intends to amend the law to give police more authority to control protests following demonstrations with people blocking roads or marching slowly.

In recent years, the country has witnessed several protests that have shut down large parts of central London and blocked traffic on key highways, urging the police to have more power to stop the disturbance.

The government passed legislation to address the issue in 2022, but is planning to go further with a new set of laws known as the Public Order Bill. The bill was published in 2022 and is currently in the final stages of debate in parliament.

The amendments to the Public Order Bill will broaden the legal definition of “serious disruption,”  giving police “greater flexibility and absolute clarity” over when they can intervene in a protest.

“The right to protest is a fundamental principle of our democracy, but this is not absolute,” Mr. Rishi Sunak remarked in a statement.

The Prime Minister added that “we cannot have protests conducted by a small minority disrupting the lives of the ordinary public. It’s not acceptable, and we’re going to bring it to an end.”

Under the proposed changes, UK police will be able to shut down protests before they even happen and be allowed to consider the “total impact” of a series of protests rather than handling them individually.

The bill further includes a new criminal offence for those who try to lock themselves to objects or buildings and allows courts to restrict the freedoms of protesters if they are thought to be likely to cause “serious disruption.”

The bill has drawn heavy criticism from civil rights groups, who say it is anti-democratic and gives police too much power. The rights group Liberty UK, which has been campaigning against the bill, claimed that the proposed legislation was “an attack on people’s ability to stand up to power.”

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