Trespass

Trespass to land is, at its core, a civil wrong: going onto land without the permission of the person in possession of it, without any right of access. The Crown Prosecution Service's own guidance confirms that trespass is not of itself a criminal offence, but that a range of statutes create specific criminal offences in which trespass is an essential ingredient — meaning that simple trespass typically gives rise to a civil claim (for example, an injunction or damages) rather than a prosecution, unless one of those statutory offences is also made out.

Where Parliament has criminalised particular kinds of trespass, the CPS guidance identifies numerous specific offences, largely under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, including aggravated trespass — where a person, while trespassing, does an act intending to intimidate, obstruct, or disrupt the lawful activity of others — and offences relating to residing on land without consent, failing to leave land after a police direction, and trespassory assemblies. Separate statutory offences also criminalise trespass in specific contexts, such as trespassing in a building or on land with a firearm, squatting in residential premises, and trespass on railways. Because prosecutors must not act incompatibly with Convention rights, guidance requires them to consider rights such as private and family life, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly before pursuing any prosecution that touches on these offences.