Free speech • PSPOs

Coventry Council to vet political campaigners in city centre

Coventry Council is planning a new PSPO that will ban independent political campaigning in the city centre. If it goes ahead, only those who have been formally approved by the council will be able to use amplification or put up a small campaigning stall. This replicates the order in Leicester, which has seen dozens of religious groups given warnings and a pensioner fined for running a campaign against council cuts. These orders mean that the council gets to decide which causes can be heard or seen in the city – which is a violation of free speech rights and democracy. (See our…

Free speech • PSPOs

Greenwich to renew ban on comments of ‘sexual or gender-based nature’

Greenwich Council is currently consulting on an extension to its PSPO – an order that bans a swathe of activities, including drinking in public, foul language, persistent begging, ‘anti-social loitering’ within 10m of a cash machine, ‘anti-social use of vehicles’ (including bikes), anti-social behaviour, and (perhaps most absurdly) ‘comments made of a sexual or gender-based nature’. The key thing is that most of these offences are in the eye of the beholder – ie, the official has the power to judge whether or not an offence has been committed. Who is to say when loitering, drinking or cycling is ‘anti-social’, and when…

Busybody State

Freedom news roundup

It has been a busy fortnight for the machinery of public-space control, but we begin with a win. The Pilates instructor told she must pay £85 a week to run a free class on the beach is back, after reaching a deal with the council. Elsewhere: police in Liverpool have used the new protest powers for the first time, drawing a zone on a map inside which covering your face became a crime. Two councils are consulting on renewed Public Spaces Protection Orders, including a ban on making ‘sexual comments’. And in Chiswick, police officers walked into a pub to warn a…

PSPOs

Criminalising busking and begging in Nottingham

Nottingham City Council is currently consulting on a new PSPO, which we are opposing and have submitted a response. The plans as currently worded would fine people for everyday, harmless things – playing music in the street, asking passers-by for money, or selling the Big Issue in the ‘wrong’ spot – even when no one is actually being harmed. It treats poverty and ordinary street life as anti-social behaviour, punishing buskers, the homeless and street collectors for who they are rather than for anything genuinely harmful they’ve done. And the test for breaking the rules is so vague – anything causing ‘disturbance’…

On-the-spot fines

Defra bans fining for profit: a campaigner’s guide

After over a decade of our campaigning, Defra has released new statutory guidance on litter enforcement powers. The guidance, which came into force in April 2026, was the subject of a Guardian exclusive. This is the statutory guidance we have been seeking. It is not perfect and could have gone further, but it contains several provisions that – if enforced – should put an end to the worst practices of the private enforcement industry. Here are the key gains. 1. Private firms must not profit from increasing the volume of fines. This is the crucial provision. For years, the standard model has been for private companies…

On-the-spot fines • PSPOs

Over 25,000 ‘busybody’ penalties issued in 2025

This week, the Crime and Policing Bill is passing through the ping pong stage in the Commons and Lords. This bill will increase the penalties for Public Spaces Protection Orders – which ban activities such as standing in groups, feeding birds, or loitering – from £100 to £500. Most of these penalties are currently issued by private companies on commission – the company is paid a portion (normally 80-90%) of penalty income, and therefore has a direct incentive to issue as many penalties as possible. The Liberal Democrat peer Tim Clement Jones introduced an amendment to prevent private companies from directly profiting…

Free speech • PSPOs

Campaigners defy council ban on campaigning

We are working with political campaigners in Leicester, who are opposing the council’s ban on political campaigning (a new law prohibits displaying banners or flags, amplification, and setting up political stalls). Here is news from campaigners about their recent protest, when they set up campaign tables in defiance of the ban. We have written to the council, asking them to remove this restrictive and undemocratic law. Six different campaigning groups defied Leicester City Council’s ban on campaign tables and set up close to each other in the city centre on 7 February. While the event was happening City Wardens made no attempt…

On-the-spot fines • PSPOs

Victory on ‘busybody’ fines in House of Lords

On 25 February, peers passed an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to ban fining for profit for ‘busybody’ offences. The amendment states that companies ‘must not receive, directly or indirectly, any financial benefit that is contingent upon the (a) issuing of a fixed penalty notice, or (b) the number or value of fixed penalty notices issued’. This would mean that ‘payment per fine’ contracts – under which over 14,000 penalties are issued each year – would be declared invalid. Council ‘busybody’ powers (Public Spaces Protection Orders, and Community Protection Notices) have led to new bans on activities such as feeding…

Blog • On-the-spot fines • PSPOs

Lords debate ‘fining for profit’ for ‘busybody’ offenses

The Crime and Policing Bill will increase penalties for ‘busybody’ offences from £100 to £500 (clause 4). On-the-spot penalties for Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) and Community Protection Notices (CPNs) are currently issued at a rate of over 20,000 a year (in 2023 there were 19,000 FPNs for PSPOs, and 1,200 for CPNs). This price hike will therefore affect substantial numbers of people. These orders are issued on a low benchmark and have been subject to widespread misuse, including bans on gathering in groups or sleeping in public, and individuals banned from looking at their neighbours or ordered to cut their grass.…