Public Disorder and Public Health Risks

A report from the SPI-B Policing and Security sub-Group of SAGE was published yesterday. This was the executive summary:

Public Disorder and Public Health: Contemporary Threats and Risks

SPI-B Policing and Security sub-Group.

Executive summary

● The threats currently facing the UK are diverse, inter-connected and dynamic.

● Public health will be particularly adversely affected by spontaneous public assemblies, particularly if these develop into violent confrontation.

● Local lockdown carries with it a series of threats to social cohesion and public order.

● Some media narratives are reinforcing claims that Asian and Black people in areas of local lockdown are potentially responsible for disproportionately spreading the virus.

● There has been a step-change in threat levels since the last sustained period of serious rioting in the UK in 2011.

● The police are in a far weaker position in terms of capacity to deal with these threats than in 2011 and police weaknesses, when recognised, were a factor in the spread of urban disorder during those riots.

● If upstream intervention is not taken, amplification of the conditions for serious public disorder in multiple locations is likely to develop.

● If serious disorder does develop, it will have a detrimental impact on public health, facilitating the spread of disease, making the re-imposition of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 next to impossible and would be likely to require military support.

● Policing has a vital role to play in preventing disorder but coordinated action is needed across Whitehall and with local authorities. This is not simply a policing issue.

What we have here is a government published report suggesting there is serious risk of social unrest in the UK, in no small part due to racial tension, and much of the rest on right wing extremists.

I suggest that the report is worth noting. As are its recommendations