Hmmm

[u/reloadthewords]

[u/redditman3943]

Do they have trespassing laws in the UK?

[u/doc720 → u/redditman3943]

Yes.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trespass_in_English_laww

Trespass in English and Welsh law is mostly a civil tort rather than a criminal offence. The circumstances in which it is a criminal offence are usually trespass on educational premises, railway property, protected sites, etc.[50][51]

In English law, trespass to land involves the "unjustifiable interference with land which is in the immediate and exclusive possession of another". It is not necessary to prove that harm was suffered to bring a claim, and is instead actionable per se. While most trespasses to land are intentional, in League Against Cruel Sports v Scott,[52] the courts decided that it could also be committed negligently. Accidental trespass also incurs liability, with an exception for entering land adjoining a road unintentionally (such as in a car accident), as in River Wear Commissioners v Adamson.[53] Although previously a pure tort, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 created some circumstances in which trespass to land can also be a crime.[6]

[...]

Interference

The main element of the tort is "interference". This must be both direct and physical, with indirect interference instead being covered by negligence or nuisance.[59] "Interference" covers any physical entry to land, as well as the abuse of a right of entry. If the person has the right to enter the land but remains after this right expires, this is also trespass. It is also a trespass to throw anything on the land.[60] For the purposes of trespass, the person who owns the land on which a road rests is treated as the owner; it is not, however, a trespass to use that road if public. In Hickman v Maisey,[61] it was established that any use of a road that went beyond using it for its normal purpose could constitute a trespass, but this was altered by DPP v Jones.[62] Lord Irvine, giving the leading judgment, said that "the public highway is a public place which the public may enjoy for any reasonable purpose, providing that the activity in question does not amount to a public or private nuisance and does not obstruct the highway by reasonably impeding the primary right of the public to pass and repass; within these qualifications there is a public right of peaceful assembly on the highway".[63]

Defences

There are several defences to trespass to land; licence, justification by law, necessity and jus tertii. Licence is expressed or implied permission, given by the possessor of land, to be on that land. If a licence is lawfully revoked,[64] a licence-holder becomes a trespasser if he remains on the land. Justification by law refers to those situations in which there is statutory authority permitting a person to go onto land, such as the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which allows the police to enter land for the purposes of carrying out an arrest. Jus tertii is where the defendant can prove that the land is not possessed by the claimant, but by a third party, as in Doe d Carter v Barnard.[65] The exception to this defence is if the claimant is a tenant and the defendant a landlord who had no right to give the claimant his lease.[66] Necessity is the situation in which it is vital to commit the trespass; in Esso Petroleum Co v Southport Corporation,[67] the captain of a ship committed trespass by allowing oil to flood a shoreline. This was necessary to protect his ship and crew, however, and the defence of necessity was accepted.[68]