At the Christian Legal Centre, we were invited by the College of Policing to provide feedback on new draft guidelines for the police to enable them to use their powers of arrest under section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act more appropriately.
The guidelines come following a recent amendment to remove the word "insulting" from section 5, which makes it a criminal offence to use “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The term "insulting" has been used by police officers to arrest a number of Christian street preachers, including Christian Legal Centre client Tony Miano in July.
The new guidelines seek to ensure that section 5 is applied correctly by officers once the amendment to remove the word "insulting" comes into force in early 2014.
Click here to read the Christian Legal Centre's response to the draft guidance >
Consultation on Hate Crime
At Christian Concern, we have also argued against proposals by the Law Commission to extend existing hate crime offences to cover disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity .
You can read our response to the Law Commission's consultation on the issue here.