‘The country’s most senior family judge has accused the education secretary of “complacency bordering on cynicism” in a scathing judgment that deplores the lack of secure, therapeutic placements in England and Wales for scores of children with complex needs at risk of taking their own lives.’
The Guardian, 31st January 2023
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
‘The NHS has paid out at least £20m over poor care in children’s mental health services, a leaked report has revealed.’
The Independent, 10th April 2022
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The criminal justice system is “failing” people with a mental illness “at every stage”, a major report has found has found.’
The Independent, 17h November 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Prisoners were unlawfully prevented from showering daily as punishment for poor behaviour, with shielding and self-isolating inmates also unable to do so, according to a damning report.’
The Guardian, 12th August 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Home Office’s rush to deport asylum seekers last year ahead of Brexit amounted to “inhumane treatment,” a watchdog has found. In its annual report for 2020, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre (IRC) raised concerns around the impact of the government ramping up efforts to remove people arriving on small boats from the UK in the later months of 2020.’
The Independent, 20th May 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The Home Office has pursued a policy of psychological brutality by locking up scores of torture survivors in solitary confinement for indefinite periods, according to fresh testimony from immigration detainees.’
The Guardian, 15th May 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A High Court judge has sent a second judgment in less than a month – this time “more in exasperated hope than expectation” – to the Children’s Commissioner for England, the Secretary of State for Education, the Minister for Children and others over the lack of regulated accommodation for vulnerable children.’
Local Government Lawyer, 24th November 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Children’s charity the NSPCC has said a drop in Facebook’s removal of harmful content was a “significant failure in corporate responsibility”.’
BBC News, 19th November 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A controversial immigration detention centre where several deaths have occurred in recent years is to close.’
The Guardian, 23rd July 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Inspectors have discovered high levels of self-harm, violence and use of force at an immigration detention centre in Lincolnshire where one detainee had been held for more than two years.’
The Guardian, 10th March 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Levels of self-harm in prisons have hit a new high, with more than 60,000 incidents in a year, official figures show.’
The Guardian, 30th January 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The local authority was applying for a secure accommodation order in respect of B (aged 15). B and her parents opposed this, mainly because the proposed placement was some distance away.’
Transparency Project, 29th November 2019
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘It was recently confirmed in Fernandes de Oliveira v Portugal [2019] ECHR 106 (no.78103/14, 31 January 2019) that a state’s positive obligation under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) applies not only to compulsorily detained patients, but also to those in hospital. However, there was a disappointing caveat. The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) concluded that “a stricter standard of scrutiny” might be applied to patients detained “involuntarily” following judicial order (para.124). Indeed, no Article 2 violation was found. In a partly dissenting Minority Opinion (MO), Portugal’s Judge Pinto De Albuquerque and Judge Harutyunyan describe the decision scathingly as “the result of a creative exercise of judicial adjudication for an imagined country” (MO, para.16). This article analyses the case law the ECtHR failed to apply, contends that the decision is plainly wrong, and argues that no differentiation between voluntary and involuntary patients can be justified.’
No. 5 Chambers, 6th August 2019
Source: www.no5.com
‘More than 18,000 prisoners are living in cells designed for fewer people as overcrowding fuels violence in jails, a charity has warned. An analysis of government figures by the Howard League for Penal Reform shows three in five men’s prisons are holding more people than they are certified to look after.’
The Independent, 1st August 2019
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The jury returned a narrative conclusion at the inquest into the death of Rocky Stenning, finding that the failure to adequately assess his risk of self harm and suicide whilst he was at HMP Chelmsford contributed to his death. They also noted that restricting Rocky’s access to a telephone, the length of the prison sentence he received and other known triggers as identified in the Ministry of Justice’s suicide and self-harm policy, affected Rocky’s mental ill health.’
Garden Court Chambers, 3rd July 2019
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘Potentially suicidal autistic children with mental health problems in Staffordshire have been left at risk of self-harm after receiving inadequate and unsafe care, according to a damning leaked internal NHS report.’
The Guardian, 16th June 2019
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Britain’s jails are failing to get a grip on record levels of violence, suicides, self-harm and drug-taking which are all getting worse, the chief inspector of prisons warned yesterday.’
Daily Telegraph, 22nd November 2018
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Incidents of self-harm in jails across England and Wales increased to 49,565 in the year to June 2018, with the number of self-harming individuals up by 10 per cent, despite a reduction in the overall prison population.’
The Independent, 25th October 2018
Source: www.independent.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2025