On Monday, the House of Commons debated the Second Reading of the Public Order Bill.
In his contribution to the debate, which can be watched here, Richard Fuller MP highlighted his concerns over the imprecise wording of a number of Clauses that have the potential to subsequently be misapplied and go much further than the intention of clamping down on protests that seek to cause serious disruption or are a cover for causing criminal damage.
Richard said:
I expressed to the Minister my concerns about a number of clauses, I don't want our police officers at risk of being accused of politically-motivated responses if the legislation is sufficiently poorly written to require officers to make heat-of-the-moment judgement calls.
I also took the opportunity to highlight the disproportionality of stop and search in this country and observed that we need to adopt a much fairer and more balanced approach to stop and search than the Clauses currently contained in the Bill.
Richard's full contribution can be watched here.
