Thread by @BBCDomC

Ok ... legal challenge to the Met Police's ban on the Reclaim These Streets / Sarah Everard vigil is now beginning. Tom Hickman QC will be making the firest submissions for the organisers of tomorrow's proposed event.

Mr Justice Holgate begins by saying that he and all others taking part in the hearing express their sympathies to the family of Sarah Everard.

The submissions re the ban on the vigil are going to take about an hour. Tom Hickman QC says the proposed event is a vigil and a protest. It would be socially-distanced.

Mr Justice Holgate notes that it would also be a "gathering" under the Coronavirus regulations (gatherings being generally banned)

Tom Hickman QC: There's been a risk assessment. It will be marshalled and it will be masked and there will be masks available for those who do not have them. Arrangements are being made to ensure that it is being carried out in a covid-safe manner - and it is outside.

The Metropolitan Police say this gathering cannot go ahead because they're prohibited under the coronavirus regulations and their hands are tied. #reclaimthesestreets

Tom Hickman QC: The police say it isn't up to them to make an assessment whether the vigil is a reasonable or legitimate exercise of individual rights of freedom of speech and association. #reclaimthesestreets

"We ask the court ... to require the police to think again whether this demonstration is a legitimate exercise of rights" #reclaimthesestreets

In essence, Tom Hickman QC says that the coronavirus regulations restricting gatherings are rules signed into law by ministers - but these rules are *secondary and subject* to the more important Human Rights Act which was passed by Parliament. #reclaimthesestreets

And that means the police need to consider the right to protest, before they can take a decision to ban the Sarah Everard vigil #reclaimthesestreets

Mr Justice Holgate: The rights (of free speech and assembly in the Human Rights Act) are not "absolute". Impositions can be justified. There is an argument, he says, that the coronavirus regulations, for public health reasons, justify an interference with the rights.

Tom Hickman QC, in summary, replies that the police have to assess those rights - and they basically haven't done that. They've got to look at the facts of the specific proposed event before they can decide whether it's permissable during the pandemic.

This is what the claimants want the court to declare:

1) The Covid regs banning gatherings are subject to the Human Rights Act.

2) The Metropolitan Police's ban on *all* protests is unlawful.

3) Protest in a reasonable manner is therefore a "reasonable excuse" for a gathering.

Tom Hickman: "What we need is for the police to go away and properly take into account Articles 10 and 11" (the rights to free speech and assembly in the Human Rights Act).

Ok. Now we're hearing the response from the barrister for the Metropolitan Police - he's George Thomas. Mr Justice Holgate is asked to read another document & makes a plea for a little sympathy: "Judges don't read documents instantaneously."

George Thomas, for the Met Police, notes that last year's "Tier 3" restrictions for parts of England (ie before the national winter lockdown under "Tier 4") explicitly permitted. The point being T4 has never listed protest as a reasonable excuse for a gathering.

Mr Thomas says the restrictions do not permit the Metropolitan Police to allow any gathering of 2+ people.

George Thomas: The police's concern is a gathering that's designed to be "unlimited in number", that could lead to very significant crowds in a central location. That's at a time when Parliament's intention is to not allow gatherings of more than two people for health reasons.

George Thomas says that the Met Police DOES NOT have a a policy banning all protests under the coronavirus regulations - and it is already applying the human rights considerations at the centre of this case.

George Thomas: The Met Police has every sympathy with the underlying cause - but in the context of the coronavirus crisis, it would not be appropriate for the police to allow such a large scale gathering to take place.

Tom Hickman QC gets the final say for the claimants. he says: The submissions from the Metropolitan Police don't correspond with the position they have taken previously or indeed their policy.

He says a police policy document from January says all protests are banned. "That is their starting point. There is nothing in this document about [the right to protest and how to assess it]."

Tom Hickman QC says there is no evidence from the police before the court that proves they properly followed the law they say they followed - namely taking into account the right to protest.