Support Chris Packham CBE and Gaie Delap in their challenge to the Government’s crackdown on the right to peaceful protest.

Together with fellow environmentalist Gaie Delap I’m challenging the legality of the Government’s draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSCA). This oppressive legislation allows peaceful protestors of any persuasion to be prosecuted and convicted for a new, widely framed criminal offence of “public nuisance”.

The law says…

Under this legislation a person commits a “public nuisance” offence if they intentionally or recklessly do something that creates a risk of or causes serious harm to the public or if it prevents them from exercising their rights. The offence carries a maximum penalty of ten years which puts it on a par with rape, attempted rape, threats to kill and serious assault.

What’s happened is…

In July 2024, five Just Stop Oil (JSO) climate activists were sentenced to up to five years’ imprisonment for joining a Zoom call to discuss plans for a peaceful protest on the M25 under the new statutory offence of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” introduced under section 78 of the PCSCA. 

In January 2025 the Court of Appeal held a hearing to consider the sentencing of a total of 16 climate protestors. All of them had received lengthy jail terms – all together their sentences added up to 41 years. The hearing included Gaie, who pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing “public nuisance” and was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her part in scaling a gantry above the M25 in November 2022. She took this action to highlight the then Government’s decision to green light more than a hundred oil and gas licences.

The Court of Appeal marginally reduced the sentences of six of the activists, including Gaie’s, on the basis that the original sentencing was “manifestly excessive”, but the judgment raises crucial questions about what constitutes a lawful peaceful protest. Like most protestors we are keen to work within the law, but this tyrannous legislation has the potential to criminalise virtually every type of peaceful protest – something that has been a cornerstone of UK democracy for decades.

It doesn’t stop there…

The JSO protestors in this appeal were all motivated by their grave concerns about the climate crisis and the world’s continued reliance on fossil fuels – but unbelievably, none of them were allowed to rely on their motivation as a defence before the court. 

The UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders, Mr Michel Forst, described the JSO activist’s sentencing as a “dark day for human rights” and has expressed serious concerns over the fact that presiding judges have forbidden environmental defenders from explaining to the jury their motivation for participating in a given protest He said, “It is very difficult to understand what could justify denying the jury the opportunity to hear the reason for the defendant’s action, and how a jury could reach a properly informed decision without hearing it, in particular at the time of environmental defenders’ peaceful but ever more urgent calls for the government to take pressing action for the climate”. 

The legal action

Gaie and I have sent the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Secretary of State for Justice a Pre-Action Protocol letter. This is the first step in legal proceedings and it demands urgent clarification and reform of how the PCSCA is being interpreted and enforced by the courts. Our letter argues that the law which criminalises "public nuisance" is so broad and imprecise that it risks criminalising entirely peaceful environmental protests.  It therefore fails to offer sufficient protection for the rights to freedom of speech and assembly under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights which the UK ratified in 1951.

Our case also challenges the lack of guidance for prosecutors and judges, which leaves protesters vulnerable to prosecution without clear legal boundaries and risks ongoing confusion in the courts.

We think the new offence could already be having a chilling effect on our fundamental right to protest because some people may understandably be scared to plan and participate in non-violent protest when they don’t know if it will amount to “public nuisance” and might lead to their arrest and imprisonment. 

What our letter asks the Government to do…

The legal letter calls on the government to: 

• Clarify how section 78, the relevant part of the PCSCA, will be interpreted in a way that protects the right to peaceful protest.

• Issue guidance to the courts outlining when prosecutions under section 78 will or will not be brought. 

• Confirm that courts must consider human rights defences (Articles 10 and 11 ECHR) when protestors are prosecuted. 

• Alternatively, they must accept that section 78 is incompatible with the Human Rights Act and amend the law. 

The simple facts are…

We are in the midst of a triple planetary crisis of climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and catastrophic pollution. Environmental defenders are acting for the benefit of every last one of us and every living thing. It is therefore imperative that we ensure that they are protected. Gaie and I believe that this law is a dangerous attack on the fundamental right to peacefully protest. Peaceful protests have been a cornerstone of every progressive environmental and social movement in history. Yet right now, laws like this are being used to silence dissent and criminalise conscience. Please be very clear, this is not just about us, or Just Stop Oil, or the environmental movement– this legal challenge is about the future of democracy in the UK. It is important to everyone.

Thank you 

Chris Packham