[IER] What’s wrong with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Fri Mar 19 17:37:27 GMT 2021

News brief - 19/03/21                                                                            <https://us12.campaign-archive.com/?e=__test_email__&u=f121e48a8bb6d3101590c12d3&id=339e51ed2f> View this email in your browser 

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What’s wrong with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 

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Earlier this week, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons just one week after it was published. The highly controversial Bill is being rushed through solely on the steam of the government's Parliamentary majority, with all opposition parties unanimously voting against it and even Tory allies, the DUP, abstaining on moral grounds. Indeed, one DUP MP said the Bill "would make a dictator blush" in the punitive limits it sets on peaceful protest.

Should the Bill become law in its current state, sentences of up to ten years in prison could be doled out to demonstrators and strikers for the new statutory offence of "intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance", which includes the absurdly broad act of causing "serious annoyance" or "serious inconvenience". Worse, even  creating a risk that someone might become seriously annoyed or inconvenienced could lead to prosecution. 

It also imposes prison sentences on protestors damaging statues of up to twice the length of the maximum sentence for actual bodily harm - thereby treating injury to an inanimate memorial as a more severe offence than injury to a living human being.

In a brief IER guide, we pulled together the key arguments made against the Bill in its two-day House of Commons debate, beginning with the powerful words of Clive Lewis, Labour MP:

"How often have we heard the notion that somehow liberty is an integral part of the English character, and that we fortunate few in this country are somehow different from the rest of humanity?

"Not for us authoritarianism, autocracy or, God forbid, the dark slide into fascism. No, no, no—that is for other people and other countries, not us. Yet here we stand, yet again with yet another Bill from this Government stripping the people of this country of yet more liberty and more of their democratic rights." 

 <https://www.ier.org.uk/news/whats-wrong-with-the-police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill/> Read full story 

FREE: Join our experts for a detailed briefing on the HSE and Covid at Work

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30th March 2021 – 10:00 am - 1:30 pm 

Workplace infections account for a significant proportion of all Covid cases. An analysis of PHE data conducted by Professor Rory O’Neill, one of the co-authors of  <https://www.ier.org.uk/product/hse-and-covid-at-work-a-case-of-regulatory-failure/> HSE and Covid at work, revealed that 40% of people testing positive for Covid-19 reported prior ‘workplace or education’ activity.

Meanwhile, a survey of call centre workers by co-author Professor Phil Taylor revealed that over one in three (35.4%) were seated less than two metres away from their colleagues in contravention of social distancing rules. This is despite a warning from the government’s own SAGE advisors that reducing social distancing to one metre rather than two could increase transmission ten-fold.

In May 2020, the government declared workplaces “Covid-secure” and reassured workers that this would be enforced through a £14m package for HSE ‘spot checks’. But IER’s analysis found strong evidence that risk was not sufficiently mitigated in workplaces because Covid-19 rules were not adequately enforced due to an underfunded, light-touch approach through an understaffed agency that failed to regulate the risk to workers and communities.

The magnitude of this risk has since been tragically borne out by large workplace outbreaks such as that seen at the DVLA’s Swansea offices, while the government’s underwhelming response is reflected in the complete absence of prosecutions of employers known to be breaking Covid rules.

Learn more about the report, the project, and be part of the debate by joining us at this full-morning event.

Speakers

Prof Phil Taylor, University of Strathclyde – Covid and the workplace: setting the scene

Lord John Hendy QC & Prof Michael Ford QC – Covid-19 and UK’s H&S law

Prof Steve Tombs, Open University– Workplace oversight and enforcement during covid

Janet Newsham, Hazards – H&S what activists want

More speakers to be confirmed

 <https://www.ier.org.uk/events/health-safety-law-and-enforcement-fit-to-protect-the-workers-of-the-21st-century/> Book your place 

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COMMENT: Don't be fooled, Uber is still dodging the minimum wage

Kate Ewing explains how Uber appears to be breaching the ruling of the Supreme Court by paying workers only for the time they are engaged in a 'trip'. 

  <https://mcusercontent.com/f121e48a8bb6d3101590c12d3/images/a8a4b5d6-54f4-486e-a013-bfa307999b46.jpg> 

Thatcher Minister admits being briefed by SpyCops

Norman Tebbit, Thatcher's Employment Secretary, has admitted being briefed by Special Branch on the actions of trade unionists. 

 <https://www.ier.org.uk/news/thatcher-minister-admits-being-briefed-by-spycops/> Read full story 

IER and Covid-19

Due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease and the need to keep our staff, supporters and speakers safe, IER is holding all events online until further notice.

IER staff will continue to work, but remotely from home. We will answer emails, produce publications and circulate our weekly News Briefs and other on-line information. However, phone calls to the office or mail sent by post will not receive immediate attention.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and wish you all best wishes during this difficult time.

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