Court of Appeal upholds ruling that anti-protest laws were made unlawfully

Liberty challenged law change allowing cops to restrict protests causing ‘more than minor’ disruption – calls on govt to scrap law and cancel arrests and charges

The Court of Appeal yesterday found in favour of human rights group Liberty and dismissed the Starmer government’s appeal against a High Court ruling that legislation giving the police ‘almost unlimited powers’ to restrict protests was created unlawfully.

Liberty welcomed the landmark ruling, saying that the case sets an important precedent that:

Government ministers must respect the law, and cannot simply step outside it to do whatever they want.

The organisation has now called on the Government to accept the judgment and to review every arrest that has been made under the law.

In its judgment published on Thursday 2 May 2025, the appeal court agreed with the High Court’s decision in May last year that then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman did not have the power to create a new law that lowered the threshold for police to impose conditions on protests from anything that caused ‘serious disruption’ to anything that was deemed as causing ‘more than minor’ disruption. These powers have been repeatedly misused by police forces, with Met Commissioner Mark Rowley boasting to pro-Israel groups of the ‘unprecedented’ restrictions he had imposed.

The judges, Lord Justice Underhill, Lord Justice Dingemans and Lord Justice Edis, upheld the ruling, saying that:

the term “serious” inherently connotes a high threshold … [and] cannot reasonably encompass anything that is merely ‘more than minor’.

The powers, passed in June 2023, had initially been democratically voted down just a few months earlier. Braverman instead used ‘secondary legislation’, which requires far less parliamentary scrutiny, to bring the laws into effect. A cross-party parliamentary committee said at the time this was the first time a government had ever sought to make changes to the law through so-called ‘Henry VIII powers’ which had already been rejected by Parliament when introduced in primary legislation.

Liberty challenged the regulations, which have now twice been found unlawful, saying that Braverman had ‘sneaked legislation in via the back door’. Liberty said that by changing the definition of ‘serious disruption’ in such a broad way, police had been given ‘almost unlimited powers to impose conditions on protests’.

The Government’s appeal into this case was initially launched by the-then Home Secretary James Cleverly, but was continued by current Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. The Court will now decide in the coming weeks if the legislation is to be quashed, a move that. Liberty has called for immediately as per the initial ruling from the High Court, whose decision to scrap the law was put on hold until the conclusion of the appeal.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested under these measures since they were created, including anti-genocide activists whom the police falsely charged with ‘forcing’ their way through police lines when in fact video evidence makes clear they were invited through.

Liberty has called for all arrests and prosecutions under the legislation to now be urgently reviewed, alongside a comprehensive review into all protest laws that have been passed in recent years.

Liberty’s director Akiko Hart said:

Today’s judgment is clear, just as it was last year, that these laws should never have been made. They were a flagrant abuse of power from a Government determined to shut down protesters they did not personally agree with.

Five different judges over two separate hearings have now ruled that ‘serious’ simply cannot mean ‘more than minor’. It’s therefore even more surprising that the current Government chose to continue the appeal into this case and argue that wasn’t the case. As a result, even more people have been needlessly funnelled into the criminal system over the past twelve months through a law that should never have existed in the first place.

This ruling is a huge victory for democracy, and sets an important precedent that Government ministers must respect the law, and cannot simply step outside it to do whatever they want. The next step for the Government is simple – they must accept this ruling and agree to scrap this unlawful legislation once and for all.

Katy Watts, lawyer at Liberty, said:

We launched this legal action two years ago to ensure that governments are not able to sneak in legislation via the back door that weakens the rights of all of us. This judgment is a victory for Parliament and the rule of law.

The regulations we’ve defeated today are just one of many anti-protest laws introduced in recent years which have criminalised protesters and clamped down on the ways we can make our voices heard. It’s especially worrying that even more measures are going through Parliament, including bans on face coverings at protests that would make it unsafe for disabled activists and political dissidents to protest.

Protest is a fundamental right and the cornerstone of our democracy. It must not be undermined by Governments who want to shut down the ways we hold them to account. We hope today’s ruling makes the Government take stock and take a different direction that respects protest rights, instead of stripping them away further.

Shameem Ahmad, CEO of Public Law Project, which intervened in the case, added:

Public Law Project supported Liberty in the High Court and the Court of Appeal because this is a critical juncture for the UK’s democracy.

The former Home Secretary used statutory instruments to significantly restrict protest rights without scrutiny, despite these amendments being previously voted down by Parliament. The High Court agreed with us that this was an excessive and unlawful use of executive power.

When the current Government decided to appeal that decision, they missed a valuable opportunity to defend civil liberties, restore proper balance between the executive power and Parliament and commit to making laws the right way.

The Court of Appeal has agreed with Liberty and PLP. PLP believes the public deserves better than backdoor law-making that allows their fundamental rights to be diminished by ministerial decree. The public deserves assurance that legislation impacting their daily lives has undergone Parliamentary debate and thorough scrutiny.

We trust that this decisive victory for the rule of law and Parliamentary sovereignty will serve as a watershed moment for the Government. These restrictive protest laws should now be permanently abandoned and Henry VIII powers relegated to the annals of history where they belong.

In a statement, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed the ruling and called on opponents of Israel’s genocide to join its march on 17 May:

The Palestine coalition welcomes the ruling of the Court of Appeal that legislation granting the police enhanced powers to restrict protests was introduced unlawfully by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman… This is an important victory for all who believe in the democratic rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Since October 2023, the Metropolitan Police has routinely used these repressive powers to impose unprecedented restrictions on protests for Palestinian rights, to curtail the duration, routes and location of marches, and to enforce effective exclusion zones around sites of legitimate protest, namely the Israeli Embassy and the headquarters of the BBC.

Outrageously, dozens of people are currently facing charges for violating restrictions imposed on demonstrations while these unlawful regulations were in use – in many cases, for nothing more than standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. This includes PSC Director Ben Jamal and vice-chair of Stop the War Chris Nineham and others arrested on 18 January. All charges arising from alleged breaches of conditions imposed on the basis of these regulations should now be dropped.

For eighteen months we have marched to call for a ceasefire, an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, an end to British arms sales to Israel and justice for the Palestinian people. For eighteen months we have faced extraordinary attempts to suppress the movement for Palestinian
rights including by the police making use of powers that have now been found to be unlawful. We will not be silenced.

Join us in London on 17 May when we march again to demand – end the genocide, free Palestine!

Assemble 12 noon, Embankment Tube.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum in Britain
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Stop the War Coalition
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

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