‘Boris Johnson is bracing for an investigation by the Electoral Commission into payments covering renovations to his Downing Street flat. What will the process will look like and what sanctions could the Conservative party face?’
The Guardian, 28th April 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘In terms of government formation, there are two kinds of parliamentary system: “…countries where the government needs to win an investiture vote are said to have positive parliamentarism, while countries in which the government just needs to be tolerated by parliament are said to have negative parliamentarism”. By this definition, the UK has a negative parliamentary system (excepting s. 2(5), Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011): the Queen appoints the Prime Minister by inviting him to form a Government; and subsequent ministers are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the PM; but the House of Commons may move that it has no confidence in HM Government. Compared to a positive parliamentary system – e.g. Spain, where the appointment of the King’s prime ministerial nominee requires a successful vote of confidence by an absolute majority of the Congress of Deputies – a negative one has three disadvantages. These are that there is a democratic deficit in the Government; obscurity in a Government’s democratic mandate, under hung parliaments; and that there are inadequate checks and balances between the Government and Parliament.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 11th March 2021
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘Unions, women’s groups and charities have asked the UK’s equalities watchdog to investigate whether the government broke the law in its pandemic response.’
BBC News, 15th February 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The High Court judgment in R (DMA & Ors) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3416 (Admin) upheld a significant judicial review challenge against the Secretary of State over systemic delays in the provision of adequate accommodation to destitute, refused asylum seekers.’
EIN Blog, 1st February 2021
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘The family of a mentally ill man who starved to death after his benefits were stopped will take on the government at the High Court later.’
BBC News, 12th January 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘R (on the application of Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs & Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police [2020] EWHC 3185 (Admin). At a “rolled up” hearing on both permission and substantive merits, a challenge was considered by the High Court to the decision of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (“FCO”) that Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a member of the US Government’s Technical and Administrative staff stationed at RAF Croughton, was entitled to diplomatic immunity from prosecution. The challenge to this decision was dismissed on all grounds. However, permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal has been granted.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 14th December 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the Secretary of State for Education had acted unlawfully in failing to consult certain bodies representing children in care, including the Children’s Commissioner for England, before introducing the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (“the Amendment Regulations”) following the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 7th December 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Lord Sumption has this evening [27 October] in his lecture entitled “Government by decree – Covid-19 and the Constitution” issued a scathing indictment not only of the political motivations and processes behind lockdown measures, but also the underlying legality of the measures, and their impact upon the long term health of our parliamentary democracy.’
33 Bedford Row, 27th October 2020
Source: www.33bedfordrow.co.uk
‘Litigation challenging the vires of the Coronavirus Regulations has been rumbling along over recent months. On 6 July 2020, Mr Justice Lewis refused permission in the Simon Dolan judicial review case.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 28th October 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘On 21/10/2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Home Office’s removal window policy (“the Policy”) was unlawful. The Policy incorporated an unacceptable risk of interference with the right of access to court by exposing a category of irregular migrants — including those who have claims in respect of their right to life and/or freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment — to the risk of removal without any proper opportunity to challenge a relevant decision in a court or tribunal.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 27th October 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The devolution of legislative and executive powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has now been a feature of the UK constitution for over 20 years. The three devolution settlements establish patterns of governance for the devolved territories which involve a delicate balance between the proper spheres of activity of devolved and UK institutions. Any major reform affecting the powers of one level of government inevitably impacts on the other. As the history of the implementation of the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU has demonstrated, failure to consider, from the outset, the impact on devolved government of proposed measures, on the misconceived grounds that those measures only strictly relate to matters reserved to the UK level of government, inevitably leads to unpredicted consequences, legislative complexity and an enhanced level of political controversy.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 22nd October 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘The court of appeal has quashed a Home Office policy of removing migrants from the UK without access to justice.’
The Guardian, 21st October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Lord Neuberger condemns internal market bill for exempting some of its powers from legal challenge.’
The Guardian, 7th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A battle for the control of more than $1.8bn worth of Venezuelan gold stored at the Bank of England has swung in favour of the government of Nicolás Maduro after an appeals court in London overturned an earlier high court ruling concerning whom the UK recognised as Venezuela’s president.’
The Guardian, 5th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Government plans to reform judicial review come from the “same authoritarian playbook” as anti-democratic measures taken by the Hungarian and Polish governments, Labour’s legal spokesmen have argued.’
Litigation Futures, 7th September 2020
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
‘The Windrush compensation scheme is failing to provide access to justice and is worsening people’s trauma, according to a letter sent from nine law firms to the home secretary.’
The Guardian, 27th August 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
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