Member

Why now? We have made an assessment that we need to clarify this to ensure that we add key national infrastructure to enable proportionate enforcement action. I hope that the police, who will have guidance from the College of Policing on this matter, will look at this and be able to say to individuals protesting in a way that crosses the line of peaceful protest, “Do not do this. If you do this, we have powers under this Act now to detain you and to deter you. We have powers to put a case to the CPS. The CPS will put a case to a jury. The jury will either convict or not”—as in the case that the noble Baroness mentioned recently involving Palestine Action.