Short thread on why I think that the s.14 order banning all Extinction Rebellion assemblies linked to the 'Autumn Uprising' in London will probably be overturned by the courts
I had a more detailed look at this today and I’m pretty convinced this will he found to be unlawful. Seems far to wide a use of s14 powers, which are limited to imposing conditions on protests, not banning them, and especially not banning them city-wide...
s.14A does permit the banning of assemblies in a particular location but (a) needs approval from Home Sec, (b) cannot be more than a 5-mile radios, (c) that is not the power the police claim to have used used (was s.14(1))...
Who knows what a court will find but to ban all protests "linked to" XR's Autumn protests in the whole of London seems too far away from the permitted conditions re place, number, duration, permitted by s.14(1). 
As @SeethingMead mooted, Part II of Public Order Act 1986 is carefully designed to give police limited powers to place conditions on assemblies or ban processions. If Parliament meant to allow police to ban entire movements across a city it would have had to make that explicit
And that's just the points about the police acting outside of their powers. Even if they had the power, the measure imposed (effectively a complete London-wide ban on XR "assemblies" - not just protests) has to be proportionate to the aim of preventing disruption...
... I can't see how a direction which in effect bans even a group of school children assembling in their school hall to talk about XR's Autumn protest (yes, this really would be caught by the wording of the direction) could possibly be proportionate.
Right to protest is protected under Arts 10/11 Human Rights Act and the case law is clear that peaceful protest is protected, even where it is disruptive. That's not an unlimited protection, but this direction will have such a major chilling effect it is surely disproprioante
Oh and the police have a duty to give adequate reasons as to why they have taken the action they have, and that can't just be 'because disruption'. They have to give sufficient detail to explain why they have banned XR assemblies across the whole of London. They haven't.
As I said, you never know what a court will do but this seems to be an unprecedented and disproportionate use of s.14 Public Order Act powers and if the court permits it to go ahead it will set a dangerous precedent for future protests.
If the police feel they need new powers of city-wide movement banning to deal with XR-type protests, they need to lobby the Home Secretary to introduce them as a bill to Parliament so they can be properly debated (and hopefully rejected), not try to get them through the back door
PS the direction is too widely drafted. "linked to" is probably too vague and uncertain to satisfy the quality of law requirements for art10/11 ECHR.
