“Charities should be forced to rein in the use of High Street fund-raisers known as ‘chuggers’ or face state regulation, a cross-party committee of MPs has concluded.”
Daily Telegraph, 6th June 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“A former Metropolitan police officer who had access to private information about wealthy Chelsea residents including the Duchess of Cambridge and Tetra Pak heir Hans Rausing has been jailed for two years for selling stories about them to the Sun.”
The Guardian, 5th June 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Reporting restrictions on proceedings concerning a life prisoner should be discharged since the public interest in allowing media organisations to publish reports outweighed the prisoner’s human rights.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 3rd June 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“The enactment of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (“PIDA”) was designed to introduce important protection for those blowing the whistle to draw attention to wrongdoing discovered in the workplace. During the passage of the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Nolan commended those behind it ‘for so skilfully achieving the essential but delicate balance in this measure between the public interest and the interests of employers’. Fifteen years on, the verdict is less effusive. Significant gaps had been identified in the legislation, for example in failing to impose vicarious liability on employers for acts of victimisation carried out by their employees or agents. In other respects, however, PIDA has come to be seen a blunt instrument, enabling disgruntled employees to seek unlimited compensation despite having done nothing to further the public interest.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 22nd May 2013
Source: www.11kbw.com
AAA v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 554; [2013] WLR (D) 189
“Where a judge at first instance had carried out the careful balancing exercise required in respect of an individual’s right of privacy and a publisher’s right of freedom of expression, an appellate court should not intervene unless the judge had erred in principle, or reached a conclusion which was plainly wrong or outside the ambit of conclusions that could reasonably be reached.”
WLR Daily, 20th May 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“The public has a right to know that Boris Johnson had an extramarital affair with a woman who later gave birth to their daughter, the appeal court has ruled.”
The Guardian, 21st May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Department for Work and Pensions has lost a major court battle to keep the locations of thousands of workfare placements secret.”
The Guardian, 19th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Criminal suspects who have been arrested should not normally be named until they are charged, the Home Secretary has said.”
The Independent, 16th May 2013
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“Appeal court justices say conviction was ‘unarguable’ for racist murder of London teenager in 1993.”
The Guardian, 15th May 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The need for sensation alone has placed Jimmy Tarbuck’s name in the press for being questioned regarding an alleged sexual offence dating back to the 1970s. Jimmy Tarbuck is one of a seemingly never-ending stream of household names being questioned regarding historic sexual offences. Jimmy Tarbuck has merely been questioned. We do not know what the evidence is against him but we know it is insufficient at present to sustain a criminal charge. Why then are we even aware of this story?”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 13th May 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“Hardly a day goes by without whistleblowing being in the news. Just last month, two police officers were suspended in Cumbria for leaking information to the press about the expenses of an elected Police Commissioner. Last month, the Robert Francis Inquiry published its findings in to the high mortality rates at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, which found a culture of fear and silence throughout the organisation which discouraged staff from raising concerns about patient safety. According to research of the University of Greenwich, 80% of the public feel that whistleblowers should be protected. It seems like we are all agreed that we need more whistleblowers and that they should be protected. But why do we continue to hear about whistleblowers being victimised? As we have seen from the Cumbrian example, should police officers be suspended for raising concerns about the expenses of an elected official? When is whistleblowing in the public interest?”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 13th May 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“The Crown Prosecution Service has today published its Guidance on Charging Offences arising from Driving Incidents. The two most significant changes from previous guidance concern drivers in emergencies and deaths where the victim is a close friend or relative of the driver.”
Crown Prosecution Service, 9th May 2013
Source: www.cps.gov.uk
“Parliament is to be asked to consider the case for legalising assisted dying for terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live.”
BBC News, 7th May 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Changes to libel laws in England and Wales have been implemented after the Defamation Bill received Royal Assent late last week.”
OUT-LAW.com, 29th April 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“In what was a profoundly sad day for democracy, on 22 April 2013 the European Court of Human Rights found in favour of the UK government in a landmark test case concerning a TV advertisement produced by ADI in 2005, and subsequently banned under the Communications Act 2003.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 23rd April 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“The national whistleblowing charity has begun a public consultation exercise to help it establish whether the current law and legal protections are fit for purpose.”
OUT-LAW.com, 15th April 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“Women’s weekly That’s Life has been censured by the Press Complaints Commission for paying the sister of a murderer for her story.”
The Guardian, 5th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Last week, the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee published their report, Do We Need A Constitutional Convention For the UK? (HC 2012-13 371). It is an interesting document, mainly because its very existence shows that the idea of a constitutional convention is becoming more mainstream within Westminster. But the report raises many questions, not all of which are fully answered. The central thrust of the report is that considering the raft of changes made to the constitution since 1997, particularly devolution, ‘it is time to conduct a comprehensive review so that the Union can work well in the future’ (para 111), and that this review should take the form of a ‘constitutional convention to look at the formal constitutional structure of the UK’.”
UK Constitutional Law Group, 3rd April 2013
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org
“Lawyers for an SAS sniper are to challenge whether it is in the public interest to retry him for illegally possessing a pistol and ammunition.”
BBC News, 2nd April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Sky News correspondent Gerard Tubb will not face prosecution for hacking the email account of ‘canoe man’ John Darwin, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.”
The Guardian, 18th March 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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