The Weekly Law Reports
[2024] 1 WLR 5398
King’s Bench Division
*Rex (National Council for Civil Liberties) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2024] EWHC 1181 (Admin)
2024 Feb 28, 29; May 21
Green LJ, Kerr J
Crime— Public order— Public assembly— Police’s statutory power to impose conditions on public processions or assemblies to prevent “serious disruption” to life of community— Secretary of State’s statutory power to make regulations amending provisions regarding meaning of “serious disruption”— Whether such power limited to clarifying rather than altering meaning— Whether regulations made by Secretary of State ultra vires such power—
Public Order Act 1986 (c 64), ss 12(12), 14(11)
—
Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/655), regs 2, 3
Natural justice— Consultation by public body— Fairness— Secretary of State voluntarily conducting consultation— Whether entitled to choose whom to consult— Whether one-sided nature of consultation rendering it unfair