Background Harassment
45.In July 2004 the Government published its strategy for countering animal rights extremists – ‘Animal Welfare: Human Rights - Protecting People from Animal Rights Extremists’. The Government is committed to protecting those who work in the biomedical research sector from animal rights extremists who have used violence, intimidation and harassment in an attempt to prevent those working in the sector going about their lawful business. The Government has made several changes to the law in recent years to strengthen the protection it affords against animal rights extremists. The Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 gave the police a new power to direct protesters away from homes, where such protests may cause harassment, alarm or distress. More recently, the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 amended the definition of a public assembly in the Public Order Act 1986 so that an assembly may consist of ‘a gathering of 2 or more persons’ as opposed to the previous definition of 20 or more persons’. The 2003 Act also extended the offence of aggravated trespass to cover trespass in buildings. The position paper set out three additional measures to counter the extremists; these are set out in sections 125 to 127.