Campaigns, Behavioural Architecture & Policy Auditing

Motion Title: Protecting the Right to Protest: Repeal the Expansion of "Key National Infrastructure" Protest Offences

Synopsis:
Following the House of Lords vote on February 4, 2026, the Government's expansion of “Key National Infrastructure” to include animal testing and breeding facilities risks criminalising peaceful protest and shielding private industries. Opposition to this reclassification supports the legal challenge and calls for the repeal of these regulations.

Motion Text:
Insert into the Record of Policy Statements (RoPS):

“Peaceful protest is a fundamental right in a democratic society. This motion reaffirms a long-standing commitment to civil liberties and peaceful protest.

Conference notes the 2022 RoPS statement 'Condemn and campaign against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill', which committed to fighting for the repeal of that Act and upheld the right to peaceful protest tactics including the obstruction of infrastructure works.

Conference further notes that this trend has escalated with the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which introduces broadly defined ‘cumulative disruption’ powers and new restrictions on face coverings at protests, and calls for the repeal of those provisions that restrict peaceful protest.

We are therefore deeply concerned by the Government’s use of secondary legislation to expand the definition of ‘key national infrastructure’ under the Public Order Act 2023 to include parts of the life sciences sector, including animal testing and breeding facilities. The Public Order Act 2023 (Interference with Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025 were approved by Parliament on 4 February 2026, despite a ‘fatal motion’ attempt in the House of Lords to block it.

This reclassification places private animal testing and breeding facilities in the same legal category as genuinely critical national infrastructure such as energy and transport networks. It enables serious criminal offences to be applied to protest activity around private commercial sites, effectively shielding activities that are the subject of legitimate ethical and political debate.

We recognise that harassment, intimidation, criminal damage, and obstruction are already illegal and should be addressed through existing legislation. However, we oppose both the unnecessary and disproportionate ‘key national infrastructure’ provisions of the Public Order Act 2023 and their extension to the life sciences sector, which risks further criminalising peaceful and non-disruptive protest.

We note that the Public Order Act 2023 has already been widely criticised by civil liberties organisations for expanding police powers and weakening protections for peaceful assembly, and that this further extension of scope intensifies those concerns.

Controversial industries: particularly those involving animal suffering: must be subject to public scrutiny, democratic accountability, and ethical debate. We support transparency and a rapid transition away from animal testing toward non-animal New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and note that in November 2025 the Government launched a roadmap to phase out animal testing, Replacing Animals in Science.

Whilst opposing ‘key national infrastructure’ and other anti-protest provisions of the Public Order Act 2023 in general, we further oppose the expansion of the ‘key national infrastructure’ provisions to the life sciences sector, along with any other potential future expansions, and therefore call for the immediate repeal of the Public Order Act 2023 (Interference with Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025, and will campaign to restore and strengthen the legal right to peaceful protest and ensure that future public order legislation is proportionate, evidence-based, and compatible with obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.”