What are PSPOs? Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) impose bans on activities in public spaces. The order can be issued if a council officer believes an activity is having a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life in the locality’. There is…
Birmingham Council is planning a Public Spaces Protection Order that will prohibit people from ‘using amplification equipment, musical instruments or other items used as musical instruments’ in the city centre. This will include ‘Noise associated with busking; street entertaining, street preaching and public speaking’. Here is a guest blog post by David Fisher, busker and director of Keep Streets Live. When Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) were introduced in 2014, they came with assurances that they should not be used against buskers who were not causing anti-social behaviour. At the time, buskers were sceptical about whether this advice would be always followed.…
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 £100; the Crime and Policing Bill will increase them to…
In this case, a woman was issued with a legal order banning her from having a bus she was restoring on her drive, because a neighbour claims she could see the top of the bus while she was watching TV. The legal order absorbed the lady’s time and money and prevented her from restoring the bus. This shows how Community Protection Notices (CPNs) can give tremendous authority to complainants, no matter how irrational their complaints. The CPN ruined not only a lady’s business plan – at substantial financial cost – but also ruined her relations with her neighbours, after the council petitioned…
We have been in touch with a road safety campaigner banned from filming in Ealing (see his case here). We accompanied the man – who tweets from the account @CitizenUddin – to Uxbridge Magistrates Court to appeal his Community Protection Notice. When we arrived in the courtroom the police withdrew the CPN, rather than contest the appeal. This is very telling. @CitizenUddin had asked the police to withdraw the CPN several times before, but they stood by it. But as soon as there was a prospect of a legal appeal, and the scrutiny of a court – even though @CitizenUddin was representing…
A lady in Merseyside has been banned from taking in injured birds, which has been her habit for years. The case shows how council officers issuing CPNs assume a large degree of control over recipients’ lives, with constant demands to inspect their property and issuing minute instructions about how they live (including whether their windows are left open or closed). This goes way beyond any reasonable remit of dealing with serious nuisance or anti-social behaviour; ‘asb’ is defined according to the predelictions and personal gripes of the officer concerned. This case also shows how council officers often stir up bad feeling against…
As we outlined in our recent briefing, Respect Orders are largely a replica of an existing power: the ASB Injunction (ASBI). Our research on ASBIs (written by University of York academics) shows that these powers have been subject to widespread overuse, including cases of people being imprisoned for feeding the birds, going into a prohibited area, sleeping rough, or in one case merely for asking for 50p. The majority of defendants were not represented in the breach hearing that led to their prison sentence. It is our view that Respect Orders will reproduce – and increase – the existing problems seen with…
Anti-social behaviour powers such as Community Protection Notices (CPNs) and Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) allow officers to impose legal restrictions if they think someone’s behaviour is having a ‘detrimental effect’ on the ‘quality of life’. These powers are incredibly broad, but there are a number of important civil liberties protections in the Statutory Guidance. Unfortunately, these protections are generally ignored. We are calling on the Home Office and MPs to ensure that Statutory Guidance is respected, including through amendments to the current Crime and Policing Bill. Here is an outline of protections in the Statutory Guidance. 1. There should be no…
This is a guest post by Robert Campbell-Lloyd, administrator of pedlars.info, outlining his objections to Birmingham Council’s proposed ban on peddling in the city centre. Birmingham Council’s proposal to ban all peddling within the city centre is unlawful, unreasonable and unnecessary. Here are my objections to the measure below: 1. The PSPO unlawfully conflicts with the Pedlars Acts 1871 and 1881 The Pedlars Act 1871 establishes the right of individuals to trade as pedlars upon obtaining a Pedlar’s Certificate issued by the police. This right is further reinforced by the Pedlars Act 1881, which explicitly states that a certificated pedlar has the…
Sheffield Council recently introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order that will have a major effect on the lives of homeless people in the city, including bans on begging and loitering. Here is a guest post by Sheffield law lecturer Dr Ben Archer, urging the council to rethink. In April 2025, Sheffield City Council introduced a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) aimed at addressing anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the city centre. The PSPO contains prohibitions on ‘Drinking alcohol in an anti-social manner’, ‘Begging’, ‘Loitering’, ‘Drug use’, ‘Public urination/defecation’, and imposes requirements to ‘Provide your details’ and ‘Leave the restricted area’. Punishment for breach…
StopWatch has launched a new report #GIRLSMATTERTOO, looking at women and girls’ experiences of the police. Here is a guest blogpost by StopWatch about the issue… A failure to safeguard female victims of crime. Unlawful strip searches used as a disciplinary tool. Unnecessary use of force during routine stops, often resulting in trauma. These are some of the shocking encounters with police experienced by racialised girls and young women surveyed for an upcoming StopWatch report. Under a participatory action model of research, a team of girls and young women conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 Black, Asian and Mixed-race girls and young women…
Respect Orders (contained in the Crime and Policing Bill) have been enthusiastically trailed as a new policy mechanism that will tackle the ‘virus that is anti-social behaviour’. However, Respect Orders are not new, but are an almost exact replica of existing ASB…