Liberty was part of a coalition of 20 human rights groups, including Justice, Big Brother Watch and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, urging MPs to scrap the Act. In a joint statement, they said the Act ‘weakens social care safeguards, leaving people without vital support. It removes protections for people experiencing mental health crises. It has created unworkable police powers that have been disproportionately used against people of colour. It threatens our fundamental right to protest’.
The 329-page Act contains a wide range of powers to stem the pandemic, including powers to restrict or prohibit public gatherings, including political protests. It suspends local authorities’ legal duty to meet people’s care needs, and removes the requirement for two doctors to sign off detention of a patient under the Mental Health Act 1983.
