United Kingdom - UK Parliament Attempts to Limit Protest, Censor Free-Expression, Limit Abortion, and Cease Tracking Hate Crimes- All At Once

By Artemis T. Douglas

LONDON — The UK government has announced some amendments to the wide-ranging Crime and Policing Bill currently moving through parliament that proposes major changes to criminal justice, online safety, and civil liberties.

At the time this article was published, the UK government had only issued press releases partially covering the amendments that would criminalize digital strangulation/suffocation content and create new criminal offenses for protestors that protest outside officials’ homes.

Among the new and amended measures are the abolition of hate crime laws, including data collection and enhanced sentencing for hate-motivated offences. The bill would prohibit police from recording data on race, ethnicity, or “transgender identity” in relation to crimes, which would end any current framework for tracking hate incidents.

The legislation also seeks to criminalize the possession or distribution of what the government deems pornographic content depicting strangulation or suffocation- as well as incest. This move is associated with government claims that parliament received recommendations from an independent review that found such material contributes to normalizing violence against women. 

Other provisions from the proposed amendments include:

• Image Editing Software Ban: Possessing or distributing software capable of creating or altering intimate images without consent would become a criminal offence. 
• Online NSFW Promotions Criminalized: Operating websites that so much as have advertisements for sexual services (and possibly adult content- the language is vague) could be prosecuted as “pimping,” even if the content is legal.
• Online Harm Penalties: Publishing “harmful content” online could result in prison time, though the bill does not clearly define what constitutes harm. Instead it requires that those involved in publishing and disseminating content online are held to the same standards as distributors of print or physical pornographic content. 
• Name Change Notification: Sex offenders would have to get approval from police prior to changing their name and everyone would have to give police 7 days notice before changing their name via deed poll.
• Workplace Harassment Mandate: The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) would be tasked with enforcing new workplace anti-harassment rules, including mandatory action plans for employers- and re-evaluating any existing rules to reflect the new law and recent court decisions.
• Protest Restrictions: The bill introduces new criminal offences for disrupting road traffic and bans protests outside the homes of public officials. It also makes protests about past government policies illegal, punishable by prison time and/or a fine.
• Removal of Evidentiary Burden: It also removes requirements for police to have accurate information before entering premises in certain contexts, such as when they’re tracking stolen property. 
• Limits Abortion Care: As amended, the legislation would require in-person medical consultations before a woman or pregnant person could legally terminate a pregnancy, makes aiding an illegal abortion its own crime, and orders an annual government report on abortion statistics in order to report on “the impact on the health and safety of women.”
• Expands Online Age-Gates: The legislation has multiple amendments that would expand the legal requirement for and means of age verification to access content on the internet.  Those amendments are focused around allowing a “digital ID” to be an alternative method of legally required age verification.

The government’s press release for the protest restrictions within the bill amendments said that the aim is so that “police will be given strengthened powers to stop this form of intimidation and abuse, and help clamp down on toxic behaviour in UK politics.” 

However, the press release didn’t touch on how the bill has language preventing protests about past government actions or policies, nor how there is language mandating that the government re-evaluate the statutory framework on protest and update protest regulations.