SNP ministers considering balaclava exclusion zones in Scotland

Justice Secretary Neil Gray said the Scottish government is looking at what has been done in Nottingham.

It recently became one of the first cities in the UK to introduce restrictions on balaclavas, allowing police and council officers to require people to remove a face covering where their identity is being concealed to commit crime or behave antisocially.

The powers include £70 on-the-spot fines, confiscation of the face covering and referral to an immediate justice programme requiring community work. Those who continue to flout the rule could be issued with a criminal behaviour order, which could ban them from the city centre indefinitely.

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Young men wearing balaclavas while riding electric bikes or scooters and engaging in antisocial behaviour has been a growing problem in Edinburgh, Glasgow and elsewhere.

Mr Gray said such issues are a “significant challenge” in his constituency of Airdrie and Shotts.

Speaking during a fringe meeting held by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) at the SNP conference in Aberdeen, he said e-scooters are already illegal on public highways, while the misuse of offroad vehicles such as quadbikes “should be addressed through a proper licensing or registration route”.

“I cannot fathom for the life of me why the UK government has so far refused to engage on a licensing or registration scheme for offroad vehicles,” he told the event. “I cannot fathom it.

“It would assist - and I’ve had this correspondence back from senior police officers - it would assist in investigation of those particular instances of criminality and antisocial behaviour significantly.”

Mr Gray said face coverings such as balaclavas were a “growing and very challenging” phenomenon, “where we are seeing balaclavas being used in order to mask criminality, antisocial behaviour and significant disruption and disorder”.

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He added: “It is one that we are looking at. There are clearly civil liberties implications around this, and it is not as easy or straightforward as just banning them or banning them in certain areas.

“We are looking, though, at what is being done in Nottingham, where you’ve got essentially exclusion zones, and we are in active discussion with the Chief Constable - I had a very recent meeting with her where we were exploring this - around what would help, what would make the difference.”

The crackdown in Nottingham is not a blanket ban on face coverings, with officers instead targeting “crime, anti-social behaviour or intimidating conduct”. There are exemptions protecting people who wear face coverings for legitimate reasons such as religious, health, medical or work needs.

A consultation by Nottingham City Council received responses from more than 2,200 people, with more than 90 per cent of them supporting action to tackle the issue.

David Threadgold, chair of the SPF, said balaclavas were an “emerging issue”.

“I think the public expectation of the police is that if someone is on an electric motorcycle, wheeling up Union Street or Princes Street or whatever, that we would do something about that, and I think that’s absolutely reasonable,” he said.

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“The reality is our options, our tactical options to deal with that are fairly limited.”

Mr Threadgold said existing legislation is “quite limited”.

He said: “A situation where the police are being directed away from those who are wheeling up Union Street [in Aberdeen] or Princes Street because we cannot antagonise those who are doing it is simply unacceptable in this country.

“We have to have options available to us to proactively target anyone who is committing a crime, whether it’s on a motorbike or anywhere else, and the reality is at the moment that we do not have resources.”

David Linden, the SNP convener of Holyrood’s criminal justice committee, told the event a “masked gang” recently stormed through the streets of his Shettleston constituency.

He said communities are “crying out for action” and urged ministers not to take “too long” to consider the matter.

“I totally understand the point the Cabinet Secretary has made in terms of civil liberties, and there are members of my committee who have a stronger view on this as well… I think the time has definitely come for us to look at a bit more action on this,” he said.

Mr Linden said there should be a crackdown on tuning kits, which can be bought online and are used to increase the maximum speed on e-bikes.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage previously called for full face coverings, including those worn for religious reasons, to be banned in public, after masked anti-illegal migrant protesters gathered in Dover.

Mr Farage said: “Now, I’m all for the protest. Plenty to protest about. But seriously, this is not the way to go about it.

“Because let’s be clear, face coverings are a menace. Whether it is a heavy-duty balaclava worn by a gang member or the dark mask of ‘Antifa’ extremists, their purpose is to bully and intimidate.”

He said seeing masked people in the streets should not be accepted as “part of modern Britain”.