Affinity’s Submission to the Government Consultation on the Public Order Act

In recent years the Public Order Act 1986 has been used by the police in ways which have unjustifiably hindered the legitimate freedoms of Christian street-preachers and others involved in evangelistic projects.  

Affinity therefore welcomes the government’s current review of the wording of Section 5 of the existing Act, including the public Consultation, which closed on 13 January, over whether the use of “insulting” words and behaviour should continue to be a criminal offence.   

Affinity, convinced that the ministry of street preachers and others is well outside the legal definition intended by the word “insulting” in the 1986 Act, has responded to this Consultation, contending that the word should be removed from the Act.  This would leave the police with far fewer grounds for intervention, and preserve a Christian freedom which existed in practice, uncontroversially, for more than 250 years prior to the high profile incidents of the last 10 years.

Affinity Submission to the Government Consultation on the Public Order Act 1986