The statutory and common law controls on processions, assemblies and disorder — from advance notice requirements to outright bans and the ancient power to keep the peace.
Freedom to protest in England and Wales operates within a framework of graduated police powers, and knowing where each power begins and ends is what these rules turn on. This chapter opens with the structure of the Public Order Act 1986, the distinction between processions and assemblies, and why the police hold wider powers over the former. It then works through the regime for processions — the section 11 notice requirement, the imposition of conditions under section 12, and prohibition orders under section 13 — before turning to public assemblies, where conditions are available but bans are reserved for trespassory assemblies under section 14A. It closes with the common law: what counts as a breach of the peace, the arrest and entry powers it triggers, and how binding over orders operate.
