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Grant Shapps, civil contingencies, and the right to strike
The latest plans to suppress industrial action are chilling. They are the hallmark of authoritarian government – and worse, argues Prof KEITH EWING

GOVERNMENT powers to deal with peacetime emergencies are contained in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Part II.  

The Act applies to war, terrorism, and environmental disasters, as well as to “events or situations” which threaten “serious damage to human welfare.”   

Although a strike could in theory cause the Act to be invoked (though it has never happened), emergency regulations may not “prohibit or enable the prohibition of participation in, or any activity in connection with, a strike or other industrial action.”

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