Review of Marches and Parades In Scotland: Guidance for Scottish Local Authorities

Annex A Sample letter for your local authority to send to their opt-in organisations

Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 Part V - Notice of a public procession

Dear Mr/Mrs

We have recently received the notification shown above to hold a procession. We are currently considering the details of the notification and will discuss it with the police and the organiser. We will take a decision on whether:

• the procession can go ahead without any conditions being placed on it;
• the procession can go ahead with an order made to place certain conditions on it; or
• the procession should be prevented from going ahead.

Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights sets out the 'right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association'. This means people have a right to hold marches. However, it is not an absolute right and we can place restrictions on it if it is necessary. As a result, we are letting you know about the organiser's intention to hold the procession so that you can consider how the procession might affect you and how you might need to plan and work around it. If you want to raise anything about the procession, please contact me by [insert date]. If you do make a representation, we may include it in papers the [insert title] Committee may consider. This means that your identity and those of any other people making a representation will become public.

We may invite you to come to any meeting we might have with the organiser and the police to discuss this notification. If the procession is to go ahead (with or without conditions), we may also hold a meeting with the organiser and the police after the procession is held to go over any other issues. We may also want to invite you to come to the [insert title] Committee's meeting. We will write to you again to let you know if we will be inviting you to come to any of these meetings. The details of the procession are as follows.

You should send any questions or notes of concern about holding the procession to:

[insert local authority contact details here]

Yours sincerely