Diff: Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

The '''Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994''' is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made broad changes to criminal law, police powers, public order law, trespass-related offences, sentencing, and procedure. Several of its provisions remain important in England and Wales, especially section 60 stop and search powers, section 60AA powers concerning face coverings, rave directions, aggravated trespass, and trespassory assemblies.

The Act is often shortened to '''CJPOA 1994'''.

The Act was passed during the 1990s as part of a wider programme of criminal justice and public order reform. It dealt with a wide range of issues rather than one single topic. Some provisions concerned police powers and court procedure. Others were aimed at unauthorised encampments, large music events held without lawful permission, protest activity on land, and weapons-related risk in public places.

Because the Act covers many unrelated subjects, references to it should normally identify the relevant section. A statement about section 60 stop and search, for example, is not the same as a statement about aggravated trespass under section 68.

== Stop and Search Powers ==

Section 60 allows a senior police officer to authorise stop and search powers in a defined locality for a limited period. The power is connected to serious violence, offensive weapons, and dangerous instruments.

Once a section 60 authorisation is in force, a constable in uniform may stop and search pedestrians and vehicles for offensive weapons or dangerous instruments. The power can be used without the ordinary requirement for individual reasonable grounds to suspect that the particular person or vehicle is carrying a weapon. That makes section 60 stronger than ordinary stop and search powers, but it depends on a valid authorisation and is limited by time and locality.

The authorisation can initially last up to 24 hours. A superintendent may extend it for a further period where the statutory conditions are met.

Section 60AA allows police, where the statutory conditions are met, to require a person to remove an item reasonably believed to be worn wholly or mainly to conceal identity. It also allows seizure of an item reasonably believed to be intended for that purpose.

The power is commonly linked with public-order operations, protest policing, football disorder, and events where police believe offences may occur and identity concealment is being used to frustrate enforcement. It is not a general ban on face coverings. It depends on an authorisation or an applicable section 60 situation, and it must be exercised within the limits of the section.

The Act contains several provisions involving trespass and land. The Crown Prosecution Service guidance notes that trespass is not, by itself, normally a criminal offence, but some offences include trespass as a required element.

Section 61 gives police powers to direct trespassers to leave land in specified circumstances, especially where groups are trespassing with vehicles and the statutory conditions are met. Later amendments changed parts of that regime, including the period during which return can be an offence in some cases.

Sections 62A and 62B deal with directions where an alternative site is available. These provisions are aimed at particular unauthorised encampment situations and should not be treated as a general power against all trespassers.

Sections 63 to 65 deal with police powers connected to raves. Section 63 defines a rave for this purpose in terms of a gathering with amplified music that is likely, because of its loudness, duration, or timing, to cause serious distress to local inhabitants. The Act famously includes music characterised by repetitive beats.

The powers allow senior officers to direct people to leave land where the statutory conditions are met, including cases involving people preparing for, waiting for, or attending a rave. Failure to comply with a direction, or returning within the prohibited period, can be an offence.

Section 68 created the offence of [[Aggravated Trespass|aggravated trespass]]. A person commits the offence if they trespass on land and do an act in relation to lawful activity on that or adjoining land with the intention of intimidating, obstructing, or disrupting someone engaged in that lawful activity.

This offence is often relevant to protest cases, but it is not limited to protests. It can apply wherever the elements are made out. The prosecution must prove the trespass, the act, the connection to lawful activity, and the required intention.

Sections 70 and 71 amended the [[Public Order Act 1986]] by adding powers and offences relating to trespassory assemblies. These provisions are concerned with assemblies involving trespass on land where serious disruption or significant damage to land, buildings, or monuments is anticipated.

The provisions sit alongside ordinary protest law. Police and prosecutors must still consider the facts, statutory thresholds, and rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

The 1994 Act should not be confused with the modern offence of squatting in a residential building. That offence is found in section 144 of the [[Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012]], not in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

The distinction matters because "trespass", "aggravated trespass", "unauthorised encampment", and "squatting in a residential building" are different legal ideas with different elements.

Police receive intelligence that two groups are expected to fight in a town centre with knives. An inspector authorises section 60 for a defined area and period. A uniformed constable may stop and search people in that area for weapons even without individual reasonable grounds for each person, provided the search stays within the authorisation.

A protester walks onto private commercial premises and deliberately blocks staff from carrying out lawful work. Depending on the facts, that may raise aggravated trespass. A person merely standing on land without the required intention would not automatically commit section 68.

* [[Aggravated Trespass]]

* [[Offensive weapon]]

* [[Public Order Act 1986]]

* [[Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984]]

* [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/10/section/144 Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, section 144]