Submitted on Monday 15th March 2021
Rejected on Friday 19th March 2021
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: duplicate (see below for details)
Amend the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
The right to protest peacefully is an important one for the civil liberties of UK citizens. The bill criminalises protests which cause "serious annoyance" with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. This is a flagrant abuse of our rights and such language should be removed from the bill.
The police have the appropriate powers to punish wrongdoing, be it during a protest or elsewhere. Peaceful protest is fundamental to freedom of expression in a democracy such as ours, allowing citizens to have their voices heard in the space between elections.
Protest is designed to cause 'annoyance' by making those it is directed to feel pressure from the protesting group. Therefore, this bill can, in effect, criminalise any protest that the government or police would like stopped.
You can't sign this petition because it was rejected. But you can still comment on it here at Repetition.me!
The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
There's already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:
Do not restrict our rights to peaceful protest: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579012
Remove single person protest clauses in Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/578875
Do not pass the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/579242
3.149.233.62 Tue, 21 May 2024 06:47:53 +0100
