Background
The right to peaceful protest is protected under UK law, however on rare occasions peaceful protests can escalate towards conflict, known as Public Disorder. The primary driver to a public disorder event may be long-standing grievances, or it could occur as a spontaneous response to a single incident.
Disorder on a large scale could significantly affect the emergency services and Government through causing:
- criminal damage to public and private property
- increased acquisitive crime
- arson
- rioting
- looting
- reduced community cohesion.
Local Risk Rating
Very High
What does the Local Resilience Forum do to prepare?
As a Local Resilience Forum, we work together to share information between emergency responders before, during and after public disorder events. The police also run nationally accredited public order training, as well as establishing intelligence, and information gathering and monitoring. The police also use established strategic threat and risk assessments, and agreed national mobilisation protocols all help to prepare for these events.
The Local Resilience Forum also provides advice and safety information for the public during public disorder events.
How can you prepare?
Call 999 if there is an ongoing incident of public disorder and there is an immediate risk to the you or your property.
Consider closing your business as a local precautionary measure for safety and economic reasons, where the risk of disorder is highly likely.
