On Friday 11th February 2011, the Coalition Government published the Protection of Freedoms Bill. This Bill brings together a raft of measures to restore hard-won British liberties that have been lost in recent years. Some of the measures came from the 14,000 ideas left on the Your Freedom website.
The Government is committed to continuing this public engagement with the content of the Protection of Freedoms Bill. This website gives you the opportunity to comment on each clause contained in the Bill. Your comments will get collated at the end of this public consultation and fed through directly to the Parliamentarians who will carry the Bill through the House of Commons (go to the Parliament website to learn about the passage of a bill). These comments will assist and challenge MPs, aiding their scrutiny and debate on the details of the Bill. This is a pilot for the 'public reading stage' that the Government wants to introduce to give the public an increased say in all bills
To help your understanding of the Protection of Freedoms Bill, download and read these Explanatory Notes.
You can find the individual clauses of the Bill (there are 107 in total) by using the navigation on the left-hand side of this page. Here's how the Bill is broken down:
- 7 Parts.
- Each part is further broken down into chapters.
- Most chapters are then organised into sub-sections.
- These sub-sections contain the individual clauses.
- Click on any of the 107 clauses in the left-hand navigation and the text will appear here. Leave your comments at the bottom of the page. You can comment on as many or as few of the clauses as you like.
Alternatively you can download the entire Protection of Freedoms Bill as a PDF document and post your comments into:
Civil Liberties and Identity Policy Unit
Home Office
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Please remember to include the Clause number your comments refer to.