Public order offences

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/009207/Q

Version Date: 29/12/2025

The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information:

Time Frame for Data:      

3 May 2023 (Act Introduced) to 30 November 2025.   

Data Collection:    

From PNLD as of 1 December 2025:     

Public Order Act 2023 Offence Wordings:        

Being equipped for tunnelling (current)  

Being equipped to lock on (current)       

Breach requirement in a serious disruption prevention order (current)       

Cause serious disruption by presence in a tunnel (current)   

Cause serious disruption by tunnelling (current)         

Commit prohibited act under a serious disruption prevention order (current)        

Intentionally obstruct officer conducting stop and search without suspicion (current)  

Interfere / move / remove apparatus-major transport works (current)       

Interfere with access to / provision of abortion services (current)         

Interfere with use / operation of key nationally infrastructure (current)       

Lock on to person / object / land to cause serious disruption (current)       

Notify false information to police in purported compliance with a serious disruption prevention order (current)    

Obstruct undertaker etc of major transport works (current)    

Crime Record Management System - NICHE   

Qlik Sense Report: Detainee Management - Arrest Data       

Month Year: May 2023 - Nov 2025        

Arrest Offence: As above  

Qlik Sense Report: Detainee Management - Custody Data   

Custody ID: As present in Arrest dataset

Qlik Sense Report: Offence Management v5.0 - Offence Data         

Offence Description: Interfere with use / operation of key national infrastructure       

Data Processing:  

1. De-dupe Custody Data.
2. Match Custody Data into Arrest Data.
3. Match in Offence Data and Crime & Outcomes Data.
4. Use NICHE to manually review occurrence for 'Offences' & 'Linked Occurrences' to see if there are any other 'protest-related conspiracy' offences with a charge within the occurrence.

Data Caveats / Limitations:      

• While the religion/belief and/or disability status of an individual can be recorded on police systems, the data is not available in a consistent, or easily retrievable format.

Please provide the information below for the period from commencement of the relevant provisions of the Public Order Act 2023 to the most recent date for which figures are available, in relation to protests, demonstrations, vigils and other public assemblies.
A. Public Order Act 2023 offences
For arrests made under the following provisions of the Public Order Act 2023:
•           Section 1 – Offence of “locking on”
•           Section 3 – Offence of “tunnelling”
•           Section 7 – “Interference with use or operation of key national infrastructure”
•           Any related conspiracy offences, including but not limited to:
o          Conspiracy to commit an offence under section 1
o          Conspiracy to commit an offence under section 3
o          Conspiracy to commit an offence under section 7
For each of the above, please state (where held):
1.         Total number of arrests.

Since the Act’s introduction on 3 May 2023, there have been three arrests, all with the arrest offence "Interfere with use / operation of key national infrastructure (recordable)"

2.         Number of suspects charged directly by the police (without CPS charging decision).
3.         Number of cases referred to the CPS for a charging decision.
4.         Number of suspects charged following CPS authorisation.

Two of the three arrests have a disposal of "Charge and Bailed", and the other with a disposal of "Pre-Charge Bail".

The three cases were manually reviewed, one of the three cases was referred to the CPS for a charging decision. The suspect in this cases has been charged.

5. Number of prosecutions resulting in conviction (if known to the force).
   Not known.
   
   6. Number of prosecutions resulting in acquittal (if known to the force).
   Not known.
   
   7.         Any other protest-related conspiracy charges linked to the above incidents (e.g. conspiracy to cause public nuisance, conspiracy to interfere with key infrastructure, conspiracy to commit criminal damage), specifying the offence wording and statutory provision used.
   B. Equality-monitoring data
   For the arrests listed above, please provide aggregate equality-monitoring data (where recorded), broken down by:
   •           Sex
   •           Age group
   •           Ethnicity
   •           Religion or belief
   •           Disability
   If some of these fields are not recorded or not extractable within the appropriate cost limit, please provide what is available and briefly describe any gaps.
   If no such arrests have been made, please confirm this.
   
   There were no ‘protest-related conspiracy’ offences or charges recorded on any of the occurrences.