The Football (Disorder) Act
01 June 2000
Police and magistrates in England and Wales are to gain sweeping new powers under the Football (Disorder) Act. The legislation gives the police the power to arrest and detain people they believe might commit an offence and stop them from leaving the country. Magistrates will be able to impose extensive. fast-track banning-orders where there are "reasonable grounds" that this will "help" prevent disorder and all domestic stadium bans will apply internationally.
The "emergency legislation" was drafted in response to the behaviour of English fans during the European championships in June. The Bill passed rapidly through both the House of Commons and the Lords - in time for it to become law before the England teams next away fixture in September (the draft was published on July 7 and received "Royal Assent" on the 28th). Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said that the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) considered the match, which is a "friendly" in Paris, to be "high-risk". A Liberal Democrat spokesman in the Lords commented: "you don't throw centuries of law making procedure out of the window because there's going to be a game in Paris in September."
Section I of the Football (Disorder) Act 2000: (a) creates single domestic and international banning orders; (b) allows magistrates to issue a banning order on the basis of a complaint from a police officer (or on the basis of a previous conviction, which does not have to be football related); (c) requires people subject to a ban to surrender their passports prior to matches played outside the UK; (d) gives the police new powers to arrest and detain people they suspect may cause trouble, and to bring them before a magistrate within 24 hours.
Section 2 allows NCIS intelligence data to be disclosed to and taken into account by magistrates and police. Section 3 sets out the limitations and scope of the Act, which includes
parliamentary review of the law after one year.
The new banning orders
The provisions for domestic banning orders had been updated as recently as September last year by the Football (Offences and Disorder) Act. Specific orders to prevent people attending matches abroad were not previously available, although the police did have powers to stop convicted hooligans from travelling. The new banning orders cover both domestic and international matches and tournaments, at both club and national level. The length of the bans are determined by the circumstances under which the application was made. For persons convicted of a "relevant offence" (see below) and receiving a custodial sentence, the minimum is six years and the maximum ten years. Non-custodial convictions carry a 3-5 year ban. Where magistrates believe there are "reasonable grounds" for issuing a ban - even in the absence of a criminal conviction - 2-3 year bans are available. In a parliamentary briefing on the draft legislation, human rights lawyers from Liberty criticised the removal of the courts' power "to use their own judgement to make the punishment fit the crime". Non-compliance with an order is criminal offence, punishable by up to six-months imprisonment, a fine, or both. People subject to a ban can apply to have the order terminated after two-thirds of the time-period has elapsed.
The new law designates the six days leading up to and including a football match or tournament as a "control period". Where control periods concern fixtures outside the UK, anyone subject to a banning order is required to hand their passport over to the police. Liberty suggest these provisions may breach freedom of movement provisions guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, although exemptions to EC law exist to allow states to restrict free movement on the grounds of public policy or national security.
"Relevant offences"
The "relevant offences" to which the Act applies includes not only acts of hooliganism as defined in specific legislation, but a range of p