Overview

• New FOI research shows the Met made 638 arrests for conspiracy to cause public nuisance since 2019, nearly ten times the 67 arrests recorded between 2012 and 2018.
• Only 18 of those post-2019 arrests—under 3 percent—have led to charges, compared with a 12 percent rate before 2019.
• The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 codified the offence with penalties of up to ten years and granted officers powers to seize devices and collect DNA and fingerprints.
• A Met Police spokesperson says the gap between arrests and prosecutions reflects a stricter evidentiary threshold required to charge.
• Greenpeace UK, Amnesty International UK, Friends of the Earth, and Liberty launched a nationwide campaign on July 3 demanding the government reverse recent anti-protest measures.