Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary designated a zone in Portsmouth where face coverings were banned at protests on 12 and 13 September 2026 under the Crime and Policing Act, and Sussex Police did the same in Burgess Hill on 15 September, as reported by LBC and Sussex News.
The face-coverings market resolves on police force statements, checked on 1 October 2026. It resolves YES if a force in England or Wales has publicly confirmed that it designated an area where face coverings were banned at a protest under the Crime and Policing Act, on or before 30 September 2026. If no force statement is published, BBC News and Guardian reports of the designation settle it.
Since 2011 we found six times a Home Secretary did this. Each one publicly stepped into a live wave of protests to tell police forces to use the powers they already had. We asked whether ministers announced new or wider police powers, or ordered a formal review of protest policing, within the next 30 days.