Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Fifth Special Report of Session 2021-22 of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Legislative Scrutiny: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, Part 3 (Public Order): Government Response to the Committee’s Second Report, published on 21 October 2021, HC 734, with reference to the Government’s response to para 93 of the JCHR Legislative Scrutiny: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, Part 3 (Public Order), published on 22 June 2021, whether the decision to collate and publish national data on use of Section 12 and 14 powers is the responsibility of her Department.

As part of the 2023-24 Annual Data Requirement (ADR), the Home Office introduced a new mandatory requirement for police forces in England and Wales to record data on the use of section 12, 14 and 14ZA under the Public Order Act 1986 (1986 Act). The ADR also included a request for retrospective data on the use of these powers for the period of 28 June 2022 to 31 March 2023.

As part of this data collection, information is being requested on: the date and time of the protest; the conditions imposed; the triggers; the theme of the protests/assembly; demographic information such as age, sex and ethnicity; the level of authorisation and the number of resultant arrests.

Data will be collected from police forces in due course and the intention is to publish this data in the Summer of 2024. As is usual for all data collections, Home Office analysts will assess the quality of the data collected before making a decision on which information will be included for publication on GOV.UK.

The section 12, 14, and 14ZA ADR was developed in collaboration with National Police Coordination Centre, who are overseen by the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

In addition, the Home Office will prepare and publish a report on the operation of sections 12, 14, and 14ZA of the 1986 Act as amended by sections 73, 74, and 79 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This will be published and laid before Parliament by 28 June 2024.