Analysis by Netpol, the Network for Police Monitoring, reveals there have been at least nine high-profile instances of police using Covid regulations against demonstrators, including two asylum seekers protesting outside Napier barracks in Folkestone, Kent and a woman fined £500 for organising a protest after the death of a man released from police custody in Cardiff.

The human rights group Liberty said the police were too often indiscriminately using Covid rules to disperse responsible, low-risk protests, arrest people and issue extortionate fixed penalty notices to organisers regardless of the risk to public health.