UK Crime and Policing Bill sparks free speech concerns

A new piece of legislation called the Crime and Policing Bill is making its way through the House of Commons in the United Kingdom's Parliament

The bill tackles a number of issues, including child sex abuse, youth crime and even stalking

However, critics of the legislation say it would give UK courts the ability to issue a respect order

And according to the bill, a respect order may be issued for the purpose of preventing someone from engaging in antisocial behavior

prohibit the person from doing anything described in the order or require the person to do anything described in the order

In the UK, antisocial behavior is defined as behavior by a person which causes or is likely to cause harassment

alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person

So the issue goes back to free speech. If someone says something that may cause distress to another

then that person would be considered antisocial. the court could issue a respect order over something as small as a comment

Andrew Tetenborn is a professor of commercial law and a former Cambridge admissions officer

and recently wrote a news article for Spiked. In it he called the crime and policing bill draconian explaining that the court could grant a respect order if an elected official doesn like certain criticism online maybe a post he or she finds to be harassment or cause them distress

This spectacularly authoritarian measure is supposedly aimed at street hoodlums, but it is not restricted in any meaningful way

It is a racing certainty that the courts will not apply any limits to its scope, Tettenborn writes

The bill's sponsor, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, appeared on Good Morning Britain back in February

Anchor Susanna Reid asked her about the case of a woman who got a visit from police after making comments in a private Facebook group

People in Greater Manchester say, why were those police knocking on her door and not out, you know, tackling crimes like the ones we've just been talking about

What did you make of that? So I could certainly tell you that a case like that is not covered by any of the 50 measures that we're putting forward in the legislation

Our legislation is about particularly focusing around town centre crime, neighbourhood crimes like the street theft and also around the most serious violence of all

The UK Crime and Policing Bill 2025 is currently in committee debate and the next one is scheduled for April 24th

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan. For more on this story, download the Shadaro News app or visit san.com