Any senior RUC officer who decided that the procession might lead to a breach of the peace or serious public disorder could order the route to be changed.

A Minister of Home Affairs who felt that rerouting would not be sufficient to prevent serious disorder could make an order banning any or all parades in that area.

When considering whether to reroute a parade, the RUC were required to have regard to 'the desirability of not interfering with a public procession customarily held along a particular route'.

The new legislation removed the 'traditional processions' exemption and required all parade organisers to give seven days notice to the RUC.

Once the Troubles broke out, the Act was used to ban all parades in Northern Ireland for several periods from 1969 to 1972.