Action Group on Processions: report

Background

1. The Action Group on Processions considered the conclusions and recommendations of the SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies in Scotland as well as previous recommendations from work commissioned by the Scottish Government on processions.

2. Freedom of peaceful assembly is a cornerstone of democratic society. Legislation and institutional structures govern the exercise of freedom of assembly.

3. In Scotland, Section 62 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 requires the organisers of a public procession to provide 28 days notification of their intention to process to the local authority in whose area it is taking place. Advanced notification to local authorities is to enable and facilitate the right to process to be exercised and ensure time is available to consider and discuss community impact or measures which may be required for purposes of public safety.

4. The presumption in the notification framework is that the organiser of a procession can proceed with their proposed procession unless and until the relevant authority intervenes. Local authorities can place restrictions on proposed processions, however, any form of restriction on the fundamental human right to public assembly must always be prescribed by law, necessary and proportionate.

5. The human rights of members of the public not involved in processions, and communities impacted by processions, need to be taken into account by authorities as part of the facilitation of processions. However, the starting point of the Action Group was to try to improve the facilitation of processions where possible.

6. The Action Group brought together all previous activity relating to processions and considered this through four main strands:

• Human Rights: Language and Training
• Human Rights: Process and Decisions
• Transparency and Confidentiality
• Partnership and Civic Society

7. The Human Rights: Language and Training strand considered the overall need to improve understanding of the right of freedom of peaceful assembly both within institutions and amongst the general public and to provide support on public information on processions to ensure compliance with human rights.

8. The Human Rights: Process and Decisions strand considered the integration of human rights approaches to freedom of peaceful assembly in relation to the criteria set out in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

9. The Transparency and Confidentiality strand considered the need for greater clarity and understanding of the processes relating to the facilitation of processions and the centrality of the protection of the right of peaceful assembly including receiving input from members of the public.

10. The Partnership and Civic Society strand considered the role of the state in developing civic society approaches to freedom of peaceful assembly.

11. The activity being proposed by the Action Group is set out in the summary section of this report. The body of this report sets out the background to the proposed activity.

Actions

The Action Group aimed to identify practical steps that could be taken to improve the facilitation of processions by building on the work of the SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies in Scotland. The Working Group completed its report in 2022. At the outset, the Action Group recognised that it was essential to ensure that a focus on human rights was central to all of its considerations and recommended action.

In doing this the Action Group wanted to address a perceived misconception of the notification process, often viewed as a licencing application which can be rejected by local authorities on their own grounds. When reading this document and if commenting on the processions process, it is important to understand that organising a procession is part of exercising the right to peaceful assembly and that a procession does not need to be licensed or authorised. The requirement on organisers of processions is that they formally notify the local authority of their intent to process with key details including; date, time and route, number of people expected to participate and arrangements made for stewarding. This is to ensure that those authorities are able to take the necessary steps to facilitate the procession and protect the right to peaceful assembly, although there are times when restrictions can be applied or a procession can be prohibited by the local authority.

Human Rights: Language and Training

Public Information

In response to the findings of the Short Life Working Group which highlighted that there is a need to thoroughly review the language used to describe the notification process on local authority webpages, corresponding forms and relevant guidance, the Action Group carried out a short review of local authority websites. This involved looking at the location of information as well as the information published, and considering these from a human rights perspective. The review showed the Action Group that almost all local authority websites have:

• A notification form for those wishing to process and a code of conduct policy in place, but these vary in detail and language and could be more consistent.
• A record of all upcoming notifications received for the public to access, although some can be difficult to locate.
• A processions policy and processions information located within the licensing or entertainment events sections of their website.

The Action Group observed that many of the website pages can be difficult to find and it can be difficult to locate specific information. Only some local authorities explained the human rights issues surrounding processions and the need to balance different rights (such as those of the organisers and the communities impacted by the procession), and often such explanations were vague.

Each local authority website gave information on how organisers should notify them of a planned procession. However, different local authorities use different language to describe the notification process and provide different levels of guidance which could be confusing for those organising multiple processions in different parts of the country. In addition, some local authorities require organisers to provide different types of information, including in some cases a requirement for a risk assessment to be undertaken by the organisers. It should be made clear that there is no legal requirement on organisers to complete and submit a risk assessment form as part of the notification process. However, the Action Group believe it is reasonable to encourage and assist organisers to do so as a matter of good practice. The risk assessment process should always be proportionate and should only focus on the responsibilities of the organiser rather than on the wider management of risks to public order, which remain the responsibility of the police and partners.

The Action Group believe that a greater degree of consistency across information made available on public websites would be beneficial and help strengthen the public’s understanding of the process for notifying processions.

Action: Work in partnership with local authorities to develop a minimum standard for the provision of information on the notification process for public processions. This will ensure that consistent information is included on all local authority websites. The Action Group recommend that this is modelled with one or more identified local authorities to provide a best practice example as a template for all local authorities.

The Action Group recognise that members of the public may seek clarification from agencies other than the local authority about their rights to organise a procession or their rights as a member of a community that a procession may pass through. Organisations such as the Scottish Government and Police Scotland should make sure they are providing clear information on their websites about the right to public assembly. Ideally, this should follow the best practice that the Action Group are recommending be developed for local authorities.

Action: Police Scotland, Scottish Government, local authorities and CoSLA, should work together to make sure publicly presented information on processions is clear and compliant with human rights.

Human Rights: Process and Decisions

The SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies in Scotland recommended that the ‘facilitation and regulation of processions can be improved by reinforcing a human rights approach and exploring the resourcing and processes that underpin this approach’. Therefore, in order to ensure this approach, it is important to consider the rights and legislation that underpin processions. The right to peaceful assembly is part of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is a fundamental freedom along with right to privacy; right to thought, conscience and religion; and right to expression and association. These fundamental freedoms are considered core rights in a democratic society.

The right to peaceful assembly allows people to gather together in public to:

• Express their views on political, social, religious and other topical issues.
• Celebrate their history and identity.
• Commemorate past actions and events.

Protecting this right is particularly important to make sure the voices of people who are in minority communities or on the fringes of society can be heard. For example, those who hold political views that are not reflected by mainstream political parties and people from minority ethnic and religious communities may have limited access to mainstream media or to people in power, and it is essential that society makes sure that those in the minority are able to have their voices heard.

However, the right to peaceful assembly is not unlimited and assemblies may be restricted, or even prohibited, in certain circumstances. The grounds on which restrictions can be imposed are set out in the European Convention on Human Rights and includes concerns over national security and public safety, the prevention of disorder and crime, the protection of health and morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

In Scots law, these grounds for restriction have been interpreted as public safety, public order, damage to property and disruption to the life of the community, and are legislated for under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.

Obligations on statutory agencies to facilitate and protect processions place a responsibility on local authorities to aim to ensure that a peaceful procession is able to take place at the time, place and in the manner that the organiser wishes. It is the responsibility of the state to take the necessary actions to minimise any disruption a procession may, or may potentially, cause while facilitating that procession.

In considering whether a procession might be restricted by a local authority during the notification process, or by Police Scotland when a procession is taking place or about to take place, they must ensure that any restrictions are lawful, necessary and proportionate. This means that restrictions should only be imposed if no other means can address the concern that has been identified, and any restrictions must be the minimum action needed to address the identified concern. Banning a procession should always be the last resort.

The Action Group believes that there is common understanding across Scotland of the above duties and processes but additional awareness raising of the facilitation process would help develop understanding further. To further enhance the work taking place to facilitate peaceful assembly across Scotland, consideration should be given as to how training and resources for local authorities and other relevant partners could be enhanced, and whether the development of a national briefing package could potentially help support processes locally.

Annex A discusses the importance of the right to peaceful assembly as a fundamental freedom and sets out some of the grounds under which the right to peaceful assembly may be legitimately restricted, based on international human rights standards.

Annex B provides information on notification requirements, international human rights standards and current practices in Scotland.

Action: Consider developing or enhancing current training or briefing packages for local authority officials, elected members and other relevant partners to further support understanding on the responsibility for, and the process of, facilitating peaceful public processions in Scotland and how the protection of human rights is central to this.

Partnership Working

The SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies report underlined the vital importance of interagency working and bringing together interested parties. Partnership working is central to the running of a robust notification process in every local authority. The process for doing this varies across the country and, for example, some local authorities have created Event Planning and Operations Groups (EPOGs) and others use Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) to bring partner organisations together. Partners can include Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, transport operators and local authority officials covering issues such as road management and park services. Partnership groups do not need to be limited to these organisations and can include anyone that is important to the decision-making process.

Working together, these organisations seek to facilitate the notified procession with a minimum of disruption to members of the public. However, when an agreement on the details of a notification cannot be reached, the local authority has the power to impose conditions on the notified procession.

In some cases, the local authority may use its committee structures to come to a decision on whether conditions should be placed on a notified procession. As a result, these committees play a very important role in ensuring the vast majority of processions in Scotland are appropriately facilitated to balance the rights of those processing with the rights of communities impacted by the parade.

Transparency and Confidentiality

Within the SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies report the importance of transparency in the process was underlined but it was also suggested that ‘some consideration be given to introducing a level of confidentiality in relation both to evidence submitted to local authorities and to the deliberations of the relevant committee’. Therefore, it is important to explore transparency and confidentiality within the process as well as the balance between them.

There is an obligation on statutory agencies to facilitate and protect peaceful processions and not interfere when there is no need to do so. While it is recognised that these obligations place a responsibility on authorities to ensure that a peaceful assembly is able to take place at the time, place and in the manner that the organiser wishes, it is also recognised that this is not always possible, and negotiation may be required on the detail of a notified procession.

When negotiations do not reach a satisfactory agreement between authorities and procession organisers, a decision-making process is required. In these circumstances, it is important that there is transparency in responding to notifications for both the organiser and public.

Transparency within the Notification Process

It is important for local authorities to ensure that their website, notification forms and processes support transparent decision making within the notification process. At all time, the language used should avoid reference to ‘permissions’ or a ‘licensing’ process and should refer to notifications in the context of the right to freely assemble.

A central aim of publicly providing this information is to allow those outside local authorities the opportunity to comment on notifications. It is therefore important that the process for commenting is clear and includes setting out how and when procession organisers will be advised of any comments received and how they can respond to these.

Where a decision is made by a local authority, it is important that an explanation of the reasons for that decision are made clear. Additionally, where an order has been made under Section 63 of the 1982 Act to place conditions on a procession, the order must clearly explain the terms of that order as early as possible (guidance suggests a minimum of 2 days) and how the right to appeal can be exercised by the organiser.

The Balance Between Transparency and Confidentiality

Generally, it is expected that all information will be made publicly available and a decision should be taken in public if at all possible. Care should be taken in respect to the publication of any personal details (that is the name, address and other contact information) of individuals who submit objections to a procession as this could undermine the willingness of the public to engage with the process and inhibit them making their concerns and objections known.

When a member of the public attends a committee meeting, care must be taken to accommodate the wishes of any not to be identified. Participation by members of the public should not be discouraged by placing them in a situation which may make them feel vulnerable.

Action: As part of the review and development of local authority websites, consideration should be given to making sure the need for transparency and confidentiality are addressed at all stages of the notification process.

The Value of Annual Publicly Available Information

The SLWG on Facilitating Peaceful Assemblies report detailed they were struck ‘that Council Officers across the Local Authorities in Scotland dealing with parades seemed not to have many opportunities to share and learn experiences’ and suggested that a process of information and good practice sharing should be developed. The Action Group believe it is worth looking at current publicly available information and reviewing if there is value in collating and communicating this more centrally.

Transparency in relation to local authorities can be found via their publicly available information on the notifications received each year, and the number of processions that take place as a result of these. This includes details such as the organiser, route and approximate number of participants. Sharing additional information on the number of notifications received to which changes are agreed, or conditions imposed, would help build on this transparency and demonstrate the actual extent to which conditions are imposed.

The Action Group believe that this information should be relatively easy to collect at local authority level and that, if it was collated annually across Scotland, it could offer possibilities to review any changes taking place and develop a better understanding of the resources required to support the safe delivery of public processions in Scotland.

Consideration could also be given to local authority officials across Scotland meeting annually with the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and other interested parties and experts to discuss issues arising over the previous year and comparing the effectiveness of how these issues were addressed as well as to share best practice and learning through a continuous cycle of improvement.

Action: Consideration should be given to learning and sharing best practice across Scotland annually through a ‘light touch’ review mechanism.

Partnership and Civil Society

Partnership is important in all aspects of community life and this is no different in the facilitation of processions between statutory bodies responsible for facilitation, procession organisers and those communities involved in or affected by those processions. Dialogue and involvement in processes and decision making build better relationships between all those involved.

Civic Society and Peaceful Assembly

A strong civic society and thriving democracy is one where diverse voices are heard and people are actively engaged in the decision making processes for matters that impact on them. Conflicting beliefs and ideas are a necessary and natural outcome of an engaged society. As a result, supporting freedom of assembly, and the right to hold processions, is central to maintaining a healthy democracy.

Maintaining a healthy democracy is supported by building relationships, knowledge and skills between civic society and political groups to make sure the right to peaceful assembly is protected. For example, while some activist groups may view the police as a reflection of the state they are protesting against, there can be long term benefits in developing dialogue with groups and organisations seeking to hold processions and protests to support better management of the particular form of protest they are seeking to hold.

This could include developing the skills of protest groups on things like event and risk management, negotiation, stewarding and public safety. Investment in such skills development by national and local government and policing bodies could potentially result in better facilitation of processions and protests resulting in a reduction in the resources needed from statutory agencies.

Mediation, Negotiation and Facilitated Dialogue

It is important to be clear about what we mean by mediation, negotiation and facilitated dialogue whilst recognising that the skills used are similar but are used in different ways.

The classic definition of mediation is where an independent person (the mediator) helps parties (often two but it can be more) to resolve disputes or disagreement by facilitating discussions through a process that allows the parties to come to a solution that is mutually agreeable. In mediation it is those who are being mediated who drive the discussion through the mediator to resolve the situation in a way that satisfies the needs of all those being mediated. This could include identifying and addressing the underlying issues that led to the problem arising and working with the different parties to address these. Mediation can be a lengthy process but can also be extremely beneficial in supporting long term relationships where mutual trust and understanding are needed as the bedrock of that relationship.

Negotiation is similar to mediation, but in a negotiation the aim is to achieve a mutually agreed outcome and there is no need to go beyond resolving the immediate problem that is being faced. Therefore, this is a quick way to move beyond a problem that is presenting itself as an obstacle, but the underlying issues that led to that problem will not be addressed.

Facilitated dialogue is similar to mediation in that the key aim over a period of time is to help people from different communities with different views, beliefs and backgrounds develop an understanding of different views, beliefs and backgrounds of others. This allows everyone involved to talk about those differences in a way that is respectful and not confrontational. It seeks to help people focus on listening and understanding needs, concentrating on interests and building relationships based on trust.

Such dialogue will often be facilitated by mediators but can be facilitated by anyone who is able to take on the role and maintain an independent position between all of the different parties involved. The key differences between mediation and facilitated dialogue are that facilitated dialogue can involve multiple parties from across the whole of society and can continue over many years.

Using Mediation, Negotiation and Facilitated Dialogue

The distinctions are important in terms of what approach might be recommended in different circumstances. For example, it is unlikely that mediation in the above form would be part of the process of notification and that such discussions if needed would fall into the category of negotiation.

Negotiation can be an important part of the facilitation of freedom of peaceful assembly as facilitating processions involves the consideration of a number of different elements (such as the timing of the procession and the route it will take) that need to be agreed between the organisers, the local authority and the police.

However, there is a clear role for facilitated dialogue in relation to processions, particularly in relation to ongoing relationship building between local authorities, police, those who organise processions on a regular basis and the communities impacted by those processions. Understanding the issues around processions can help to avoid conflict and, in the long term, facilitated dialogue can help build trust to resolve potential problems in an effective and engaging way.

Training organisations and communities involved with, and affected by, processions in dialogue techniques can help the self-management of problems being faced and help to create a more positive culture between procession organisers and the communities impacted by their processions. Training people in such skills won’t necessarily remove the areas around which conflict may occur, but it will better equip people to deal with any situations that arise.

Training Programme for Stewards

Enhancing the training of stewards to organise, engage and communicate with fellow processors will ultimately compliment and potentially reduce the need for public order policing.

Scottish Government, with advice from the Action Group, have taken this forward with the development of a pilot training programme for procession organisations. Working with the Centre for Good Relations, free training sessions for stewards and marshals have been made available. The training was available to any organisation involved in running processions and the pilot was completed by April 2024. An evaluation of the pilot has been undertaken to assess the impact of the training and whether the demand for it would justify an extension of the training programme beyond April 2024. The Action Group recommends that the training continues following a positive evaluation of need and demand.

The aim of the training pilot was to build the capacity of organisations to plan, prepare, marshal and manage processions and other forms of public gathering in a safe and professional manner, with particular focus on safety and risk management. This training is made up of four sessions:

• Session One: The Law and Best Practice in Relation to Marshalling.
• Session Two: Public and Personal Safety and Risk Management.
• Session Three: Planning and Preparation of Events/Parades and Gatherings.
• Session Four: Community Relations and Conflict Prevention and Management.

Action: Following assessment of the pilot, if successful, the Scottish Government should provide resource to extend a training programme for procession organisations to access and train stewards and marshals.