ENVIRONMENTAL and wildlife groups are urging peers to throw out the “most restrictive and chilling” measures in the Public Order Bill as the legislation returns to Parliament tomorrow.

A letter signed by 38 leading UK conservation organisations, including the RSPB, Wildlife Trust and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), highlights concerns over the anti-protest legislation’s “chilling effect” on the right of ordinary citizens to protest. 

“Over many decades we have witnessed the vital importance of peaceful protest in raising the alarm about the urgent threat of climate catastrophe and the decline of nature, and pressing decision makers … to act to protect people and the planet,” the letter, addressed to peers, reads. 

It urges peers to reject last-minute changes added to the Bill by Home Secretary Suella Braverman earlier this month that would see police given new powers to shut down protests before disruption occurs.

Human rights groups have accused Ms Braverman of introducing the proposals at a late stage to avoid scrutiny, warning the powers would set a dangerous precedent.  

The letter also urges peers to support amendments seeking to “remove the most restrictive and chilling aspects of the legislation entirely.”

The Public Order Bill seeks to revive measures thrown out of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act passed last year, including the creation of new criminal offences to clamp down on protest tactics widely used by climate activists such as locking on and tunnelling. 

They also include new orders to ban named activists from attending demonstrations, measures described by critics as “unprecedented and highly draconian,” as well as the expansion of protest-related stop-and-search powers. 

Peers are hoping to inflict several blows to the Bill during its report stage in the House of Lords on Monday with amendments aimed at throwing out measures to criminalise locking-on and tunnelling, as well as the expansion of stop and search powers. 

Many of those are being put forward by Labour’s Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the former director of human rights group Liberty. 

A coalition of 74 civil society groups, including Liberty, the TUC and Amnesty International, has also called on peers to support the amendments.

“The Bill is an unprecedented attack on the right to protest, both in the breadth, scope, and severity of its measures,” the coalition said in a joint briefing on Monday’s debate.

“To safeguard our cherished civil liberties, we urge peers to oppose the Public Order Bill and vote for amendments that will mitigate its worst effects.”

The Home Office has argued that the new laws are needed to “to prevent the small minority of protesters determined to disrupt the British public from going about their business.”