“Lord Justice Leveson is to be invited to give evidence for the first time to MPs about his report on the future of press regulation and the resulting impasse over setting up a new industry watchdog.”
The Guardian, 25th June 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has withheld from MPs information about the criminal activity of large British firms, it has been alleged.”
The Guardian, 22nd June 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The contracting out of key services by the Ministry of Justice could end in a ‘multiple train crash’ because the department displays naivety and lacks the capacity to understand what it is doing, according to a parliamentary watchdog.”
The Guardian, 20th June 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“‘This is a derisory document’. Thus, Professor Roger Smith described the MoJ’s paper on Transforming Legal Aid, when he gave evidence to the Select Committee for Justice last Tuesday. The most senior members of the legal profession gave evidence about the potential impact of the proposals. The President of the Law Society, and the chairs of the Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association, and Criminal Law Solicitors Association all agreed that, if the Minister has his way, the criminal justice system will be irreparably harmed. The MoJ plans to introduce these changes by secondary legislation, although more than 90,000 signatories to an e-petition (Save UK Justice) have now called for a full debate in Parliament.”
LegalVoice, 17th June 2013
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
“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
“Any review of the UK bribery laws which came into force in July 2011 would be ‘premature’, an expert has said.”
OUT-LAW.com, 29th May 2013
Source: www.out-law.com
“Prisoners aged over 60 are now the fastest-growing part of the jail population in England and Wales, the chief inspector of prisons has told MPs.”
The Guardian, 23rd April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The increasing use emergency legislation, lack of adequate debating time and insertion of last-minute amendments are preventing effective parliamentary scrutiny of new laws, a committee has said.”
The Guardian, 15th April 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“On 21st March 2013 the House of Commons Justice Committee published a report (HC 962) on the functions, powers and resources of the Information Commissioner. It is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the current role and future prospects of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).”
Panopticon, 25th March 2013
Source: www.panopticonblog.com
“The Commission delivered its Report – A UK Bill of Rights? – The Choice Before Us – to the Government in December 2012. It is an odd document, dominated by the lack of agreement in the Commission as to the role that any human rights’ instrument in Britain should play. That was unsurprising since at the inception of the Commission the Coalition partners appeared to want it to play two different roles – defending or attacking the HRA. From the very outset the Commission and the idea of a Bill of Rights (BoR) was relied upon by Cameron and other senior Conservatives to allay anger in the Conservative party, and among some voters, directed at decisions made under the Human Rights Act. David Cameron announced the Commission’s inception in March 2011 at Prime Ministers’ Questions as a reaction to criticism of the decision of the Supreme Court that sex offenders should be able to challenge their inclusion on the Sex Offenders’ register. He indicated that a BoR would address the concerns expressed (17.3.11; see the Telegraph in relation to R and Thompson v SSHD). The idea that a BoR could right the wrongs of the HRA – would provide a panacea for the HRA’s ills – had apparently been embedded in the Conservative party psyche for some years: David Cameron in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies in 2006 Balancing freedom and security – A modern British Bill of Rights said that the HRA should be repealed: ‘….The Human Rights Act has a damaging impact on our ability to protect our society against terrorism…. . I am today committing my Party to work towards the production of a Modern Bill of Rights’. In contrast, the 2010 Liberal Democrat election manifesto promised to ‘Ensure that everyone has the same protections under the law by protecting the Human Rights Act.'”
UK Constitution Law Group, 21st March 2013
Source: www.ukconstitutionllaw.org
“Hundreds of whistleblowers are now free to come forward with damaging
disclosures about the NHS after their gagging orders were retrospectively
lifted, Sir David Nicholson has told MPs.”
Daily Telegraph, 18th March 2013
Soruce: www.telegraph.co.uk
“MPs are to investigate the extent to which claims for whiplash injuries are
pushing up the cost of car insurance.”
BBC News, 15th March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Children in care in England and Wales are being needlessly criminalised for ‘trivial incidents’, MPs have warned.”
BBC News, 14th March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Like most people who are commenting in the ether at the moment, I find disturbing one of the two principal threads of the story about undercover policing which are in the news: the forging by one or more undercover officers of sexual relationships with people in the protest groups they had infiltrated. Have a look at this report on the BBC website, for a flavour of the coverage it is receiving, and a call for tighter controls to prevent such activity in the future. And then look at the Home Affairs Select Committee interim report.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 11th March 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“MPs on the transport select committee are launching an inquiry into whiplash claims, chairman Louise Ellman revealed yesterday.”
Litigation Futures, 6th March 2013
Source: www.litigationfutures.com
“Abuses connected with undercover police activities show that an urgent review is
needed of laws covering such work in England and Wales, MPs have said.”
BBC News, 1st March 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Failure to opt back in to EU criminal justice measures will hamper the UK’s ability to prosecute cross-border crime, making procedures ‘uncertain, cumbersome and fragmented’, the director of public prosecutions told peers today.”
Law Society’s Gazette, 6th February 2013
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
“The government’s Justice and Security Bill has this week entered a new phase of debate in the House of Commons as it is considered in detail by a 19-member Public Bill Committee over the next month. The critics of this Bill – and there are many – argue that it will make ‘secret justice’ a standard part of our legal process. The latest set of amendments proposed by the government were revealed yesterday and within them lies a crucial and unjustifiable secrecy provision. The significance of the amendments becomes apparent when one looks at how the Bill has progressed so far.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 30th Janaury 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“A ‘damning’ report into library closures up and down the country has found that councils making plans to shut branches without taking proper account of local needs risk breaking the law.”
The Guardian, 6th November 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The home secretary, Theresa May, has been told by peers and MPs that her £1.8bn internet monitoring proposals will be a ‘honeypot for hackers and criminals around the world’ and that she must bring in prison sentences for those who hack databases.”
The Guardian, 31st October 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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