The Public Order Act 1936 (1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6 c. 6) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

passed to control extremist political movements in the 1930s such as the

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...

(BUF). Largely the work of Home Office civil servant

Frank Newsam Sir Frank Aubrey Newsam, (13 November 1893 – 25 April 1964) was a British civil servant notable for his service as Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1948 to 1957, although he had been a central figure for many years pr ...

, Allen of Abbeydale,
Newsam, Sir Frank Aubrey
(1893–1964)", ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, September 2004; online edn., January 2008, accessed 12 June 2009. the Act banned the wearing of

political uniform A number of political movements have involved their members wearing uniforms, typically as a way of showing their identity in marching, marches and demonstration (people), demonstrations. The wearing of political uniforms has tended to be associa ...

s in any public place or public meeting. (The first conviction under the Act was of William Henry Wood, by Leeds Magistrates' Court on 27 January 1937.) It also required police consent for political marches to go ahead (now covered by the

Public Order Act 1986 The Public Order Act 1986 (c 64) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936. It implements recommendations

). The Act also prohibited organising, training or equipping an "association of persons ... for the purpose of enabling them to be employed in usurping the functions of the police or of the armed forces of the Crown", or "for the use or display of physical force in promoting any political object". While the Act likely prevented a rapid comeback of the BUF, it may in fact have had the indirect result of actually improving their fortunes. The party's forced abandonment of paramilitary and armed tactics improved their relations with the police and, by making it more "respectable", increased the BUF appeal among traditionally conservative middle-class citizens, who became the party's main base in the years after the Public Order Act 1936 was passed. The Act was used extensively against

IRA Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

and

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

demonstrations in the 1970s, though the Act does not extend to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In November 1974, 12 people were each fined the maximum £50 under the Act for wearing black berets at

Speakers' Corner A Speakers' Corner is an area where open-air public speaking, debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and best known is in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London, England. Historically there were a number of other areas design ...

during a Sinn Féin anti-

internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

rally. The Public Order Act 1936 was also used extensively against the

flying picket Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the pic ...

s during the 1984/5 miners' strike. The police used it on the grounds of preventing a breach of the peace. In 2015 and 2016, this act has also been used against

Paul Golding upGolding at a Britain First rally in 2019 Paul Golding (born January 1982) is a British far-right political leader who is currently the leader of Britain First. In December 2016, Golding was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment for breaching ...

and

Jayda Fransen Jayda Kaleigh Fransen Britain First Britain First is a far-right, British fascist political party formed in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP). The group was founded by Jim Dowson, an anti-abortion and far-right campaigner. * ''See also'': The organisa ...

Section 5 - Conduct conducive to breach of the peace

This section created the offence of conduct conducive to breach of the peace. This section was repealed by section 40(3) of, and Schedule 3 to, the

. The offence under this section was abolished by section 9(2)(d) of that Act. The offence under this section is replaced by the offence of fear or provocation of violence, contrary to section 4 of the

.''

Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice ''Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice'' (usually called simply ''Archbold'') is the leading practitioners' text for criminal lawyers in England and Wales and several other common law jurisdictions around the world. It has been in p ...

'', 1999, para. 29-27 at p.2327

References

External links

* __NOTOC__ {{UK legislation Anti-fascism in the United Kingdom Fascism in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1936