UK civic space: what is happening? 2025-2026

Over the past ten months, Bond has continued to track and analyse changes to civic space in the UK. This our third and final annual report identifying trends across UK civic space, which we define as the political, legal and regulatory environment in which civil society exists.

We have identified four new trends which we believe are shaping the environment for civil society in the UK, from the government’s position on protest rights becoming clearer, to a slow start to the Civil Society Covenant. While trends overlap, we have made every attempt to categorise them as clearly as possible, but it is important to be aware of their intersectionality.

Find out more about these trends in our UK Civic Space Annual Report.