Legislation to limit costs of policing Orange walks under consideration

Legislation to limit the "huge cost implications" for policing Orange walks is being considered by the Scottish Government.

Orange walks create "significant issues" for police and politicians, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said.

Speaking in Holyrood, Mr MacAskill recalled the 1800 officers deployed to police an Apprentice Boys march in 2007 while Strathclyde Police were dealing with the fallout from the terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport.

SNP colleague Humza Yousaf suggested the cost of policing Glasgow's 300 Orange walks a year should not come solely from police budgets.

"With almost 300 Orange parades taking place last year in Glasgow alone, during times of financial restraint, doesn't the minister agree that perhaps we need to think of measures whereby the cost of keeping the public safe does not fall solely on civic police?" he asked.

Mr MacAskill said any legislation must not restrict "innocuous" organisations such as the Boys' Brigade.

However, marching organisations have rejected the notion that they should share in the cost of policing such events.

Robert McLean, executive officer of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, told STV News: “Sir John Orr in his Review of Marches and Parades in Scotland said there should be no costs involved for anyone marching in a democratic society. We live in a democracy and everyone has the right to freedom of speech and no one should have to pay for that right.”

Mr Yousaf previously raised concerns about the review of a ban on Orange walks and other processions playing music outside places of worship such as chapels, synagogues and mosques.

Mr MacAskill revealed that the cost of policing such marches and parades in Glasgow was discussed with the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents on June 19 and again with Strathclyde Police Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins, in the context of the Jubilee weekend marches.

"I do accept that there are significant issues here. I do remember being very early into office and being faced with the incident at Glasgow Airport," he said.

"Some three weeks later we faced the Apprentice Boys march in Glasgow and I can recall some 1800 officers at a time in Scotland when we were facing challenges from an attempted terrorist atrocity, we were seeing officers deployed on that.

"These are fundamentally matters of balance. We have to ensure, in terms of the legislation, that the Boys' Brigade march and other innocuous matters are not caught when we seek to take action against matters that have huge cost implications.

"Fundamentally, they are for local authorities but we have made it quite clear as an administration: while we recognise the right of individuals, even where we disagree with what they are protesting, to take that opportunity, we have to take into account a whole variety of matters including the police."

It is the important to "get the right balance between the right of people to march and demonstrate and the right of communities to be protected and not face significant costs and challenges to their police who have others things to do as well as simply look after the interests and desires of a small minority."

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