With no publicity or public consultation, or any interest from the mainstream media, and no debate or scrutiny from Members of Parliament, the access of members of the General Public to meet with and lobby and observe their elected Members of Parliament and the unelected Lords has been further reduced as of 1st June 2007.
See our previous blog entry:- Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House now Designated under SOCPA Section 128 - even the previously public areas !
Some perimeter warning signs have now appeared around some of the Designated parts of the Parliamentary Estate. They say:
Trespass on this Site
is a criminal offence.This is a protected site
under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime
and Police Act 2005.
At the Victoria Embankment end of Derby Gate:
N.B. there are no such signs visible at the glass fronted public entrance and lobby to the Committee Rooms in Portcullis House.
At the base of "Big Ben" St. Stephen's Clock Tower on Bridge Street (which has been scaled by demonstrators in the past):
The vast array of black painted spiky railings, black painted concrete barriers, black CCTV surveillance camera "death star" mountings and now these "Protected Site" signs, all just show how paranoid and unfriendly and out of touch with the electorate, Parliament has now become. No wonder politicians are held in such increasing contempt by the public.
Note that Section 128 Offence of trespassing on designated site of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 was amended by Section 12 Trespassing etc. on nuclear sites of the Terrorism Act 2006, which, for some unfathomable reason, decided to replace the word "designated" with "protected" in the text of the clauses (but not in the sub-title of Section 128). This now lumps together military bases , military nuclear, civil nuclear and other designated sites into the category of Protected Sites.
Protected against what, exactly ? Not against terrorists, since many other laws would already apply. Presumably the protection is against otherwise peaceful demonstrators, with the collateral damage side effect, of further restricting the rights of the general public, even when they are not demonstrating or protesting peacefully.
These signs are slightly different to the ones used at the Horseguards end of Downing Street (none visible at the Whitehall end) which include a graphic:
The other Section128 Protected Sites within the Section 132 Designated Area include:
- The headquarters of the Security Service MI5 at 11 Millbank, which does not display any signs at present
- The Ministry of Defence has applied to Westminster Council for planning permission for:
07/03601/LBC Old War Office Whitehall London SW1A 2EU 28/03/2007 Display of 16 non-illuminated signs measuring 0.21m x 0.3m and 0.3m x 0.42m on all frontages at ground floor level.
However, we have not checked to see if these are on display yet.
- Similarly we would welcome reports and / or photos of any such signs around the Ministry of Defence Main Building (none are visible along the southern Richmond Passage side of the buildings.
Since there is a statutory "I didn't know it was a protected site, honest" defence in Section 128: and there was a promise by a Government Minster during the debate in Parliament that all such perimeters designated under Section 128 would be adequately sign posted, we expect that some more signs will appear in the near future.
Another step backwards :(
The railings along Victoria Embankment now sport at least 5 Section 128 Warning Notices, but the main glass fronted public entrance to Portcullis House, does not warn the public that they might have just committed a criminal offence by crossing the unmarked boundary.
Neither the Ministry of Defence Main Buildings nor the Old War Office building are displaying any such Notices at all.