Police forces will be granted powers to put conditions on repeat protests, the government has announced, a day after nearly 500 protesters were arrested.
Senior officers will be able to consider the “cumulative impact” of previous protests, the Home Office said, which could mean they instruct organisers to hold events elsewhere if a site has seen repeated demonstrations.
Anyone who breaches these conditions will risk arrest and prosecution, it said.
Following Thursday’s deadly attack at a synagogue in Manchester all police forces in England and Wales are offering additional support to the 538 synagogues and Jewish community sites across the country.
The new powers will be “brought forward as soon as possible”, the Home Office said.
While the right to protest is fundamental “this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear”, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
She said large, repeated protests could leave sections of the country, particularly religious communities, “feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes”.
Mahmood said this had been particularly evident within the Jewish community recently.
The home secretary will carry out a review of current protest legislation to “ensure powers are sufficient and being applied consistently”, the government said.
Most of those arrested at protests on Saturday were on suspicion of supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action.
Hundreds of people have been arrested since the group was banned by former home secretary Yvette Cooper in the summer.
Organisers of the protest had been asked to reconsider their plans following the killing of two men at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar.
