Last year, after the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police Officer Wayne Couzens, #ReclaimTheseSteets proposed a vigil for Everard on Clapham Common. This plan was later cancelled as it was not sanctioned by the Met.

The organisers claimed in a judicial review that their plans were unlawfully thwarted by the Met. They alleged that the Met adopted an unlawful interpretation of the covid-19 regulations, where they categorised the vigil as unlawful. At the time this vigil was proposed to place, public gathering of more than 30 people in public outdoor places was prohibited in Tier 4 areas like London due to Covid-19 Regulations. It was a crime to engage in such a gathering without a reasonable excuse.

The organisers alleged that the Met failed to consider the possibility that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly can be considered as reasonable excuses in this situation. They also alleged that the Met failed to carry out fact-specific proportionality assessment which they are duty-bound to do so in order to make decisions in such situations.

The Met merely pointed to the legal restrictions and alluded to the possibility of enforcement actions and declined to assure the organisers that they would not face enforcement action if the vigil went ahead. This led the organisers to believe that the vigil was unlawful, and it would be a criminal offence to continue with it.

The Court agreed with the organisers and granted the organisers declaratory relief. The Met had the obligation to engage in a fact sensitive proportionality assessment taking into account the fundamental rights. The Met failed to engage properly with the organisers to mitigate the health risks of public participation of in the vigil. They should have then measured the residual risk after taking mitigation measures into account.

The Met had a public duty to take reasonable steps to inform the organisers about the relevant considerations, merely noting the regulations was not enough. They failed to do so and misled the organisers.

Additionally, the Met were wrong to refuse to take into the account the nature of the vigil in the name of equal treatment and consistency in the application of the regulations.

by Swarnim Agrahari

The Sarah Everard Vigil Case