Pages of new amendments to the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill have been submitted by the government when the legislation is already half way through the Lords Committee stage.
This was already a terribly oppressive bill and now it is even worse.
The new laws target "locking-on" and other forms of nonviolent protest with prison sentences, as well as giving police officers the ability to stop and search without suspicion.
Please ask your MP to urgently complain about the lack of scrutiny of these new laws that threaten our democratic right to protest peacefully.
Jenny said: "Pages of new laws are being added to the Policing Bill in a massive attack on non-violent protest and a draconian approach to stop and search, which removes the need for the police to even suspect a crime. These are not emergency laws, yet the government has by-passed scrutiny by MPs and dived into the middle of the Lords trying to debate and change the collection of draconian, draft laws that they have already put forward.
The government should drop these amendments from the Bill - because it is procedurally not possible at this late stage to give it the proper scrutiny - and instead should bring a fresh Bill with these provisions that can then go through the full process of parliamentary scrutiny. The Green Party believe that the Lords should refuse to pass this Bill altogether if it contains these new amendments."
