Understanding the Bill for Training Contract Interviews
There has been a huge amount of debate on the bill, with Priti Patel in particular drawing ire from the House of Lords for adding last-minute amendments. A liberal democracy peer, Lord Paddick, who was deputy assistant commissioner of the Met Police, dubbed the proposals ‘outrageous’ and claimed that they could have ‘serious consequences in terms of police powers, infringement of civil liberties and the creation of new offences” and that they had been introduced in a ‘wholly unacceptable way at the last minute.’
The Bill sparked protests since its first Reading in Parliament, with a ‘Kill the Bill’ movement springing up, driven by those alarmed at its perceived ability to end peaceful protest. Protestors from Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter were considered to be particular catalysts for the Bill, and were therefore seen as a significant part of the protest force that sought to stop it.
Particular attention should be paid to parts of the bill like the criminalisation of ‘the wilful obstruction of a highway’ and the ‘obstruction of major transport works’ – which seems to stem directly from protests by the Insulate Britain group. ‘Locking on’ – the attachment of one individual, object, or piece of land to another – was also criminalised. This now carries a possible sentence of 51 weeks in jail.