London's Metropolitan Police have been accused of abusing their powers to curb protest after research found that fewer than 3% of arrests for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in the capital over the past five years resulted in a prosecution. The study, conducted by Greenpeace UK using freedom of information requests, revealed a nearly tenfold increase in such arrests since 2019, when Extinction Rebellion sparked a wave of climate activism.
Campaigners said the findings showed police misusing the law to intimidate protesters by placing them in pretrial custody, imposing onerous bail conditions, and collecting DNA and fingerprints. Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: "The fact that police are routinely dragging protesters off the streets for a crime they almost always fail to charge them with amounts to an abuse of their powers and an assault on the right to protest."
The police defended their actions, stating they had a duty to intervene "where protest crosses the line into criminality" and that differences in evidence thresholds between arrest and charge explained the discrepancy. The offence, which involves a group agreeing to cause serious harm or disruption, has carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison since being placed on a statutory basis in 2022. It was used last year to convict four Just Stop Oil activists, who received sentences of up to five years.
Raj Chada, a partner at law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, said he was unsurprised by the figures. He noted a "massive growth" in arrests for public nuisance during the Extinction Rebellion period, often replacing more minor charges like obstruction of the highway. "It was a way for police control for demonstrations, because you could put bail conditions more easily on people to prevent them coming into central London," he said.
Statistics show that between 2012 and 2018, 67 arrests were made under the power, with 12% resulting in charges. In 2019 alone, there were 205 arrests. After a lull during the pandemic, arrests surged again in 2021 with the Insulate Britain campaign, when the Met made 272 arrests and no charges were brought. The following year, the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 put the offence on a statutory footing, a change Chada said made it easier for prosecutors to bring cases.
