# Crime and Policing Act 2026, Section 166: Powers of senior officers to impose conditions on protests

Extent: E+W+S

(1) The Public Order Act 1986 is amended as follows.
(2) In section 12 (imposing conditions on public processions)—
(a) in subsection (1), for “the”, in the first place it occurs, substitute “a”;
(b) in subsection (2)—
(i) in the words before paragraph (a) omit “the”;
(ii) in paragraph (a) for the words from “, the most” to the end substitute
“—
(i) the most senior in rank of the police officers present at the scene, or
(ii) in the case of a procession in England and Wales, a police officer authorised by a chief officer of police for the purposes of this subsection, and”.
(3) In section 14 (imposing conditions on public assemblies)—
(a) in subsection (1), for “the”, in the first place it occurs, substitute “a”;
(b) in subsection (2)—
(i) in the words before paragraph (a) omit “the”;
(ii) in paragraph (a) for the words from “, the most” to the end substitute
“—
(i) the most senior in rank of the police officers present at the scene, or
(ii) in the case of an assembly in England and Wales, a police officer authorised by a chief officer of police for the purposes of this subsection, and”;
(c) in subsection (2ZB), for “reference in subsection (2)(b) to a chief officer of police includes”, substitute “references in subsection (2) to a chief officer of police include”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/20/section/166 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/crime-and-policing-act-2026/section-166
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.