For the album by Pearl Jam see Riot Act (album).
The Riot Act (1 Geo. 1, c. 5) of 1714 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain introduced to allow the local authorities to declare a group of more than twelve people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action. The Act, whose long title was "An act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the rioters", came into force on August 1, 1715, and remained on the statute books in the United Kingdom until its repeal in 1973.