Emergency Powers
A wave of emergency powers and extreme measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic have brought about the greatest loss of liberty in our country's history. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures - but not an authoritarian surveillance state. Freedoms are too easily lost in the heat of crises - join us to protect them.
Emergency Powers &
Civil Liberties Reports
Emergency measures are needed to protect public health. However, they must be proportionate, lawful and strictly temporary, to protect our democracy in the long run.
Since the pandemic began, the UK has been under ministerial rule. Draconian powers have been seized, democratic processes have been evaded, and our most basic liberties have been suspended. Protecting public health doesn’t require this new authoritarian political order.
We’ve been monitoring the new police powers, the growth of the surveillance state and big tech censorship online.
We’re producing comprehensive reports exposing the drastic suspension of civil liberties, analysing new emergency laws and making recommendations to restore rights and democracy. We're sending our Emergency Powers & Civil Liberties Reports to every parliamentarian, every month.
Our next report will be published in early October 2021.
TAKE ACTION: Is your MP standing up for your rights? Tell your MP which of our report recommendations you'd like them to follow up on. Emails to MPs can make a real difference — remember, they work for you. Find your MP's contact details here.
Fines
To date, around 20,000 people have been fined for allegedly breaching the lockdown. However, these draconian powers have been used unlawfully time and time again, and disproportionately against black and Asian people. We've rallied 13 rights groups, 40+ parliamentarians, human rights lawyers and Reverend Martin Poole to demand a review of EVERY lockdown fine - now.
If you received a fine, whether you paid it or not, tell us in confidence.
Police fixed penalty notices in England & Wales per 100,000 people
Here’s a list of the fines per region
| Police force | Fines | Population | Fines per 100,000 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avon and Somerset Constabulary | 353 | 1,650,000 | 21.39 |
| Bedfordshire Police | 289 | 660,000 | 43.79 |
| British Transport Police | 335 | — | — |
| Cambridgeshire Constabulary | 134 | 850,000 | 15.76 |
| Cheshire Constabulary | 197 | 1,050,000 | 18.76 |
| City of London | 68 | 460,000 | 14.78 |
| Cleveland Police | 298 | 570,000 | 52.28 |
| Cumbria Constabulary | 726 | 500,000 | 145.20 |
| Derbyshire Constabulary | 259 | 1,050,000 | 24.67 |
| Devon and Cornwall Police | 1,016 | 1,750,000 | 58.06 |
| Dorset Police | 824 | 770,000 | 107.01 |
| Durham Constabulary | 180 | 630,000 | 28.57 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 1,710 | 520,000 | 330.05 |
| Essex Police | 240 | 1,820,000 | 13.19 |
| Gloucestershire Constabulary | 236 | 630,000 | 37.46 |
| Greater Manchester Police | 314 | 2,800,000 | 11.21 |
| Gwent | 129 | 590,000 | 21.82 |
| Hampshire Constabulary | 248 | 1,980,000 | 12.53 |
| Hertfordshire Constabulary | 276 | 1,180,000 | 23.39 |
| Humberside Police | 138 | 930,000 | 14.84 |
| Kent Police | 125 | 1,830,000 | 6.83 |
| Lancashire Constabulary | 779 | 1,490,000 | 52.28 |
| Leicestershire Police | 369 | 1,080,000 | 34.17 |
| Lincolnshire Police | 241 | 750,000 | 32.13 |
| Merseyside Police | 484 | 1,420,000 | 34.08 |
| Metropolitan Police Service | 1,086 | 8,820,000 | 12.31 |
| Ministry of Defence Police | 35 | — | — |
| Norfolk Constabulary | 409 | 900000 | 45.44 |
| North Yorkshire Police | 1,141 | 820,000 | 139.15 |
| North Wales | 463 | 700,000 | 66.29 |
| Northamptonshire Police | 369 | 740,000 | 49.86 |
| Northumbria Police | 276 | 1450000 | 19.03 |
| Nottinghamshire Police | 186 | 1150000 | 16.17 |
| South Wales | 310 | 1,320,000 | 23.29 |
| South Yorkshire Police | 367 | 1390000 | 26.40 |
| Staffordshire Police | 43 | 1,130,000 | 3.81 |
| Suffolk Constabulary | 262 | 760,000 | 34.47 |
| Surrey Police | 511 | 1,190,000 | 42.94 |
| Sussex Police | 866 | 1,670,000 | 51.86 |
| Thames Valley Police | 784 | 2,970,000 | 26.40 |
| Warwickshire Police | 61 | 560,000 | 10.89 |
| West Mercia Police | 172 | 1,270,000 | 13.54 |
| West Midlands Police | 375 | 2,900,000 | 12.93 |
| West Yorkshire Police | 750 | 2,310,000 | 32.47 |
| Wiltshire Police | 185 | 720,000 | 25.69 |
Police fixed penalty notices in Scotland
Here’s a list of the fines per region
| Division | Fixed Penalty Notice issued |
|---|---|
| North East | 38 |
| Forth Valley | 44 |
| Tayside | 15 |
| Edinburgh | 32 |
| Greater Glasgow | 113 |
| The Lothians & Scottish Borders | 18 |
| Renfrewshire & Inverclyde | 67 |
| Argyll & West Dunbartonshire | 42 |
| Highland & Islands | 19 |
| Fife | 19 |
| Lanarkshire | 57 |
| Ayrshire | 47 |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 16 |
TAKE ACTION
1
EMAIL YOUR MP
Is your MP standing up for your rights? Tell your MP which of our report recommendations you'd like them to follow up on. Emails to MPs can make a real difference - remember, they work for you.
2
SPREAD THE WORD
Increase your impact: share this campaign page, our lockdown film, or our reports with your friends and family.
3
JOIN US!
This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to join the fight back. Join us today — we’re sending new supporters our limited edition “2020 is the new 1984” t-shirts!
CORONAVIRUS ACT
Thanks to thousands of our supporters emailing their MPs, we helped achieve a much-needed amendment to the emergency Coronavirus Act, ensuring a vote in parliament on the Act every 6 months. The first vote is in September - we'll need our voice to be louder than ever. Please join us and subscribe for action alerts.
The Coronavirus Act contains the most draconian powers ever in peace-time Britain, including:
Forced detention and isolation can be of anyone, including children, and for any amount of time
Authorities can forcibly take biological samples
There’s no clear access to legal rights from as-yet unidentified isolation facilities
Lockdown powers could prevent protests against measures
State surveillance safeguards weakened
Protections from forced detainment and treatment under Mental Health Act lowered
CONTACT TRACING APP
In a HUGE win for privacy advocates, the Government has ditched its GCHQ-backed, data-centralising contact tracing app that we warned was a failure from the start - and are said to be replacing it with a more privacy-friendly decentralised app.
We'll work hard to make sure any new app respects privacy and is completely voluntary.
PRIVACY
The pandemic has been used to expand the surveillance state: from drones and social media shaming, to mass mobile phone tracking, ANPR, citizen reporting, talk of immunity passports, and a new form of health surveillance — thermal scanning. We're monitoring these worrying developments and taking action. Below is a small selection of our work. Don't miss our 100 Days of Lockdown film where we examine growing surveillance.
FREE EXPRESSION
As an organisation that defends freedom of expression, we're concerned that tech companies are limiting free speech on their platforms at this moment of international crisis, in ways that are not proportional or time limited.
Read our letters below:
