With reports of illegal gatherings and raves dominating news coverage at the moment, the government have unveiled tougher penalties for both organisers of said events and attendees.
From this Friday (28th August), police in England will be able to fine those who hold and organise events with more that 30 people up to £10,000.
Attendees and partygoers can now be fined up to £100 and their offences can be doubled up to a total of £3,200 for every repeat offence.
The news comes as the UK police force report that they have broken up hundreds of illegal parties since the coronavirus lockdown.
Priti Patel, the UK’s Home Secretary said in a statement, “These gatherings are dangerous and those who organise them show a blatant disregard for the safety of others. We will continue to crack down on the small minority who think they are above the law.”
The police have also reported “fatigue and breaking point’ after experiencing a “surge in demand” from the public as they receive requests from neighbours and community members to break up “children’s parties” and other events.
Inspector Andy Berry, the chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Police Federation said, “We are a police force, we should be there primarily to deal with crime. What we don’t want to do is break up children’s birthday parties. We are seeing an unprecedented amount of calls coming in where neighbours are reporting these breaches and these demands are really bringing my colleagues and members to fatigue and breaking point.”