Cabinet Office UK Resilience

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Public Protest and Industrial Action

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform [External website] is the lead department for industry and manufacturing in the UK. The Home Office [External website] is responsible for maintaining public order, with the police forces.

On this page:

• The level of risk 
• Links:
  • Practitioner information

The level of risk

Large scale public protests and industrial action are one of the many rights and responsibilities inherent in a multiparty democracy. The congregation of significant numbers of persons can be hazardous if not properly managed. The hazard is significantly increased if the protest includes people intent on civil disobedience and causing physical damage.

The Cabinet Office is the lead co-ordinating Department in Government, and for contingency planning assessments it considers two broad types of protests. Firstly, one involving tens of thousands of protestors including a small proportion of protestors intent on causing physical damage, and secondly a nationally co-ordinated targeted protest.

Practitioner Information

• BERR: Trade Unions and Collective Rights - Industrial Action [External website]

• BERR Employment Relations: Picketing - Code of Practice [External PDF, 140KB, 12 pages] - The purpose of this Code is to provide practical guidance on picketing in trade disputes

• TUC: Britain's Unions [External website] - lists unions alphabetically by acronym.

• Crime and Disorder Act 1998 [External website]

• Home Office operational policing [External website]

• Metropolitan Police - Protest Action: Guidance paper for personal safety [External website] - produced by the police service to assist staff and management to review their current security arrangements. It provides advice on physical security and personal safety. Situations and circumstances can vary considerably, and this material should not be considered as a definitive guide, but the advice and recommendations adapted as necessary.

• National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (NETCU) [External website] - NETCU is a national policing unit that promotes a coordinated response to domestic extremism by providing tactical advice to the police service, and information and guidance to industry and government.

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