The Public Order Act (POA) 2023, which received Royal Assent on 02 May of that year, expands police officers’ stop and search powers in two important ways in England and Wales.
Note: some parts of the POA 2023 are not yet in force. See the bottom of this section for more information on commencement dates.
The offences added to section 1(8) of PACE 1984 by section 10 of the POA 2023 are:
Section 11 of the POA 2023 is essentially a protest-related version of section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJPOA) 1994. Section 11 allows a police officer (of or above the rank of inspector) to authorise ‘suspicionless’ stop and search powers to be used by officers within a particular area for a period of up to 24 hours, if the senior officer ‘reasonably believes’ that any of the offences in the above list ‘may be committed’ or that ‘persons are carrying prohibited object in any locality within the officer’s police area’.
A ‘prohibited object’ is an object that has been 'made or adapted for use in the course of or in connection with' any of the offences listed above, or one that is intended to be used in any of those offences by the person carrying the object, or by anyone else.
When a section 11 authorisation is in force, police officers can stop and search any person or vehicle in a specified area for a prohibited object - without the usual need for ‘reasonable suspicion’.
Section 11 can only be initiated if the senior police officer making the authorisation ‘reasonably believes’ that such an authorisation is ‘necessary to prevent the commission of [the offences mentioned in the list above] […] or the carrying of prohibited objects’. The specified locality to which the authorisation applies must be ‘no greater than is necessary to prevent such activity’, and the specified period must be ‘no longer than is necessary to prevent such activity’. Although a section 11 authorisation can only be in place for a maximum of 24 hours, it can then be renewed for a further 24 hours.
Please see the diagram below to find out how to know under what power police may stop you.
As well as expanding stop and search powers and creating new protest-related offences, the POA 2023 also establishes:
Some of the provisions of the POA 2023 were brought into force upon the Act receiving Royal Assent. A statutory instrument, 'The Public Order Act 2023 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2023', brought several more of the Act's provisions into force on 03 May, the day before the coronation of Charles III.
A statutory instrument made on 14 June, 'The Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023', amended parts of the Public Order Act 1986, lowering the threshold at which police officers can impose conditions on protest marches and assemblies.
As of 31 March 2024, the following provisions of the POA 2023 are in force*:
* All other provisions in the Act (as of 31 March 2024, sections 9, 18-29, 32, 33) will come into force once the home secretary lays a statutory instrument (secondary / delegated legislation) for that purpose. This page will be updated to reflect this as it happens.
Following the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022, the Public Order Bill was announced in the May 2022 Queen’s Speech. Then-home secretary Priti Patel said in the House of Commons, ‘The Conservative party is the party of law and order. Unlike some, we understand that freedom includes the freedom of the law-abiding majority to go about their business free from harm’ (Hansard, May 2022). She blasted the opposition for voting against the PCSC Bill (which still passed by a majority of almost 100). ‘If Labour Members really cared, they would have backed the [PCSC] Bill’.
After the defeat of parts of the PCSC legislation in the House of Lords, the Conservative government reintroduced some of these measures through the Public Order Bill. Like the PCSC Act, the Public Order Bill was heavily criticised on the basis of the restrictions it imposes on civil liberties – particularly the right to protest. A report on the Bill by the joint committee on human rights said:
While the stated intention behind the Bill is to strengthen police powers to tackle dangerous and highly disruptive protest tactics, its measures go beyond this, to the extent that we believe they pose an unacceptable threat to the fundamental right to engage in peaceful protest.
The report also stated that the proposed stop and search powers risked violating people’s Article 8, 10, 11, and 14 human rights. ‘This risk is substantially higher in relation to powers to stop and search without the need for reasonable suspicion, which have previously been considered necessary only to protect against serious violence and terrorism. Stop and search without reasonable suspicion should be removed from the Bill’.
Despite widespread criticism, the Bill was eventually passed, receiving Royal Assent on 02 May 2023, thus becoming the Public Order Act 2023.
This section will be updated when official data on police powers under the Public Order Act 2023 are published.
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