‘Rishi Sunak has been told he risks “re-toxifying” his government’s record on LGBTQ+ rights and introducing “an effective trans travel ban” after the equalities minister announced a review of countries whose process for changing gender on legal documents is recognised by the UK.’
The Guardian, 10th January 2023
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Business Secretary Grant Shapps has set out plans to enforce minimum service levels during strike action, including for ambulance staff, firefighters and railway workers.’
BBC News, 10th January 2023
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The government will introduce a bill to Parliament on Tuesday which would ensure public sector services maintain minimum service levels during strike action.’
BBC News, 10th January 2023
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, currently passing through the UK Parliament, seeks to establish minimum service levels for transport provision following widespread industrial action on the country’s railways. The UK government describes the Bill as necessary ‘to keep Britain moving during transport strikes’. While the legislation’s effectiveness has been questioned elsewhere, the Bill also raises several issues in relation to international human rights law, some of which will be the focus of this blog post.’
Oxford Human Rights Hub, 9th January 2023
Source: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
‘2022 may be remembered as one of the more turbulent years for human rights in the UK. Now, we look ahead at what might be in store for our rights in 2023.’
Each Other, 4th January 2023
Source: eachother.org.uk
‘The UK Supreme Court (UKSC) recently issued its unanimous judgment which found the draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill to be outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. While the facts of this case are distinctively different from previous Scottish cases, a common theme remains in the Court’s insistence on ‘ordinary meaning of words’ as its ‘general approach to the interpretation of the Scotland Act’. According to such an approach, the Court prioritises ‘the language carefully chosen by the Parliamentary drafter and enacted by Parliament’ as ‘[t]he best way of ensuring a coherent, stable and workable outcome’. The purpose of this blog post is not to explore the facts of this particular case. Rather, it focuses on the UKSC’s repeated stress of textualism. A similarity is found in the Court’s textual interpretation of Section 28(7), which was understood to affirm the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and served as the crux of its previous cases on devolution. The aim of the post is to show the questionable nature of the Court’s textual fidelity and highlight that it runs counter to foundational canons of interpretation. For space constraints, my argument focuses mainly on Section 21 from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill Reference (UNCRC Incorporation Bill case) after briefly discussing section 17 of the Scottish Legal Continuity Bill.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 20th December 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘Abortion in Northern Ireland has had a fraught and frequently distressing history. Until 2019 when the UK Parliament reformed the law, the jurisdiction had the most restrictive approach to abortion in the UK. But even this reform has not reformed the reality, either for those seeking abortion services or information and counselling on such services or for those who work at providers of such services lawfully. I have previously written about the situation as it stood in March 2021, and the reality has changed little since then, with two notable exceptions. In March 2022, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Bill (Northern Ireland) (“SAZ Bill”) to create buffer zones around lawful abortion providers, in an attempt to criminalise the harassment and intimidation of people who seek or work in such places. On 2 December 2022, tired of the glacial pace and political controversy in commissioning abortion services, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland moved to commission such services himself. In the interim, the Attorney General for Northern Ireland (“AGNI”) referred the SAZ Bill to the UK Supreme Court to determine whether it was lawful.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 14th December 2022
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The government has backed a private members bill that will allow lasting powers of attorney to be made completely online. The Lasting Power of Attorney Bill, which brings forward government proposals to modernise the process, completed its second reading last Friday.’
Law Society's Gazette, 13th December 2022
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Parents who fail to pay child maintenance could face swifter punishments under plans backed by MPs.’
The Independent, 9th December 2022
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Bereaved families are calling for easier access to the social media histories of deceased children, supporting amendments to the online safety bill.’
The Guardian, 5th December 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The government is publishing a draft Mental Health Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny, to modernise the Mental Health Act (MHA) for the 21st century. While the draft Bill has been welcomed by many, there must be more detail and direction on how the new legislation will be implemented at ground level.’
Each Other, 6th December 2022
Source: eachother.org.uk
‘The online safety bill, the government’s flagship internet regulation, returns to parliament on Monday, after a five-month delay prompted by Conservative party factional warfare threatened to kill it off.’
The Guardian, 5th December 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Last week the Government announced that it will update the Online Safety Bill to include the Law Commission’s recommendation to make encouraging or assisting serious self-harm an offence.’
Law Commission, 29th November 2022
Source: www.lawcom.gov.uk
‘A High Court judge has been asked to decide whether a teenager who suffered brain damage after an “apparent suicide attempt” can lawfully be allowed to die.’
The Independent, 1st December 2022
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘This briefing provides an overview of the proposed measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, along with background on the issues it aims to address.’
House of Commons Library , 29th November 2022
Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk
‘Only a few short months on from the passing of the Northern Ireland (Ministers, Elections and Petitions of Concern) Act 2022 and legislation is once again before Westminster to amend the Northern Ireland Act 1998 – as everyone knew that it would be. One of the key innovations in the 2022 Act, belatedly giving effect to a proposal in the New Decade, New Approach Agreement of January 2020, was that during its 24-week post-election period Northern Ireland Executive ministers would continue to hold office and take decisions within their remit. This period prevented what Lord Bingham referred to in Robinson as a “persisting vacuum in the conduct of devolved government” (para 15). Its extended duration under the 2022 legislation was intended to provide a sufficient window after an election for a new power sharing administration to be formed, but to keep a count-down to new elections in place to focus Northern Ireland’s major parties towards that end. This arrangement, however, has proven no more effective as an impetus than the terms that it replaced.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 29th November 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The Domestic Abuse Commissioner has warned a “deeply unjust” postcode lottery is putting the lives of victims at risk in a report that maps services nationally for the first time ever.’
The Independent, 29th November 2022
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘At paras 56-57 of their judgment, the court in Reference by the Lord Advocate of devolution issues ([2022] UKSC 31) declared: “The central issue is whether legislation for a referendum on Scottish independence would relate to a reserved matter…. The critical question is accordingly whether the proposed Bill would relate to the Union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England or the Parliament of the United Kingdom”.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 29th November 2022
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘A coalition of senior journalists and editors from across the political spectrum is calling on the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, to back a proposed law to tackle the global super-rich’s use of “abusive legal tactics to shut down investigations”.’
The Guardian, 29th November 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Online Safety Bill approaches free speech from a different context. If “democratic functioning” covers one side of the “freedom of speech coin”, then the other-side is illustrated by the tragic death of Molly Russell. Molly was a teenager who died of self-harm following the negative effects of online content, a recent investigation has concluded. This is the perspective from which the Online Safety Bill seeks to impose obligations on social media sites to protect users from harmful content.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 28th November 2022
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
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