UK: What is the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill?

The draft law aims to hand police greater powers to control protests – a measure which has already seen riots.

A demonstration in southwest England against proposed legislation that would grant police new powers to restrict street protests turned violent on Sunday, leaving 20 officers injured. Thousands of demonstrators converged on Bristol’s city centre, ignoring COVID-19 restrictions, to protest against the government’s wide-ranging Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The local Avon and Somerset Police force said the rally began peacefully but a minority of attendees turned the gathering into a violent riot.