British statute
United Kingdom legislation
Town Police Clauses Act 1847
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Long title
| An Act for consolidating in One Act certain Provisions usually contained in Acts for regulating the Police of Towns.
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Citation
| 10 & 11 Vict.
c. 89
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Territorial extent
| - England and Wales
- Northern Ireland
- Republic of Ireland
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Royal assent
| 22 July 1847
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The
Town Police Clauses Act 1847
(
10 & 11 Vict.
c. 89) is an
act
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
. The statute remains in force in both the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and the Republic of Ireland, and is frequently used by
local councils
to close roads to allow public events such as processions or
street parties
to take place.
The act is also used to regulate the local
hackney carriage
,
taxi
and
private-hire
trade in many areas. It deals with a range of street obstructions and nuisances, for example, it makes it illegal to perform certain actions in a public street or other thoroughfare, such as hanging washing, beating carpets, and flying kites,
[1]
although many of those clauses were repealed in 2015.
[2]
Historically, it was highly significant legislating against
indecent exposure
,
indecent acts
,
obscene publications
, and
prostitution.
Background
[
edit
]
In 1847, the
House of Commons
Select Committee
on
Private Bills
presented a report. In 1842 to 1843, the average number of private bills passed was 161, rising to an average of 347 from 1845 to 1846. By 21 July 1847, the House of Commons, 490 petitions for private bills were received that year. Already in place, resulting from early reports by the select committee, new mechanisms were in place to deal more efficiently with private bills.
[3]
[
clarification needed
]
Noting was that much of the business the House of Commons was dealing with were numerous
private bills
, which due to the clauses they contained, were essentially
public bills
. Drawing up private bills to deal with public functions had consequences.
[3]
The select committee wrote:
... some varying or interfering with the general statute or common law of the country; some, though ordinary in their nature, yet of a perplexing and needless diversity in form; and, finally, some so contradictory and mutually discordant as to render their enforcement impossible, and to make the law doubtful and embarrassing even to those who are professionally versed in it
[4]
To provide uniformity in legislation in different geographical areas, to reduce the number of private bills about public functions, and to reduce expense, the select committee proposed eight public acts, each dealing with a different topic:
The police legislation was enacted as the Town Police Clauses Act 1847.
Original purposes of the act
[
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]
The original act covered six areas,
- Police regulations and administration
- Obstructions and nuisances, including several significant offences about
indecent exposure
,
indecent acts
, and obscene publications
- Fires and administration of
fire fighting
- Regulating places of public resort, for example, coffee shops and refreshment house used as meeting places for
thieves
and prostitutes, places for
bear baiting
and
cock fighting
- Public bathing
- Hackney carriages
[5]
Provisions still in force
[
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]
Many clauses of the act are still in force; these are provisions dealing with
- Preventing obstructions during street processions
- Prohibiting stage carriages from diverting from a prescribed route
- Powers enabling the building of pounds for stray animals
- Impounding stray cattle, selling them, and unlawfully releasing them from a pound
- A significant number of nuisances and obstructions to the highway
- Violent and indecent behaviour in a police station
- Accidentally allowing chimney fires
- Keeping places for animal fighting, baiting, or worrying them, for example bear baiting and cock fighting
- Hackney carriages
[5]
[6]
The act is still relevant to policing the highway. Many offences in the act relating to nuisance and obstruction in the street, and the act is also a means of regulating
road closures
for special events.
[7]
The law controls the use of
fireworks
,
[8]
[9]
and the wanton discharge of firearms in the street.
[9]
A significant role is the licensing of hackney carriages.
[10]
It also prohibits the wanton furious driving of a horse and carriage in the street.
[9]
A role of the act is to regulate peoples' behaviour. It remains an offence to be disorderly or insulting in a police station.
Until 2003, the act was one piece of legislation against
prostitution
in a range of premises, including hotels.
[11]
Although superseded by other laws a conviction for indecency, deriving from the act, is on a list of offences which can be used to identify those who present a risk, or potential risk, to children.
[12]
See also
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]
References
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External links
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]