Court papers reveal Marten and Gordon’s failures as parents – BBC News
‘A years-long family court case ended in January 2022 when their four children were permanently placed into care.’
BBC News, 14th July 2025
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: news
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon convicted over daughter’s death – The Guardian
‘Two parents have been found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services.’
The Guardian, 14th July 2025
Source: www.theguardian.com
A former Conservative MP has been given a community order and fine for harassing her ex-wife. – BBC News
‘At an earlier hearing, the 41-year-old from Butetown in Cardiff denied harassing Rebecca Wallis, now known as Rebecca Lovell, between 14 February and 21 March.’
BBC News, 14th July 2025
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
UK may need new scheme to detect people obsessed with violence, report to say – The Guardian
‘A new scheme to detect people who are obsessed with violence before they kill, such as the Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana, should be considered by the government, an official report will say.’
The Guardian, 14th July 2025
Source: www.theguardian.com
Fathers plan legal action to get smartphones banned in England’s schools – The Guardian
‘Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery wrote to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, on Friday warning that they would seek a judicial review. They argue that current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for children.’
The Guardian, 13th July 2025
Source: www.theguardian.com
New online safety rules are here – but as tech races ahead, expect changes – BBC News
‘After years of campaigning and political debate, tech platforms will – within weeks – be legally obliged to stop kids seeing harmful content online, including pornography and material encouraging self-harm. They’ll be expected to check users’ ages, and if they don’t, they could be punished with heavy fines.’
BBC News, 12th July 2025
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Scandal of indefinite jail terms has left prisoners damaged by ‘state’s failure’, ex-justice secretary warns – The Independent
‘More than 2,500 inmates are still trapped under the outlawed jail terms, which have been described by the UN as “psychological torture”. They were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving those already jailed incarcerated indefinitely.’
The Independent, 13th July 2025
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Birmingham council faces legal action over decision to close adult day centres – The Guardian
‘The legal challenge argues there was an overreach by the commissioners, in breach of the Local Government Act, when they refused to allow three separate applications by elected council members to “call in” a cabinet decision to close four day centres for further scrutiny.’
The Guardian, 12th July 2025
Source: www.theguardian.com
NHS nurse jailed for rape saved thousands of women’s details from dating apps – now police appeal for more victims – The Independent
‘A former NHS mental health nurse and priest has been jailed for raping a woman he met on a dating app, and is being investigated over further alleged sexual offending.’
The Independent, 12th July 2025
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Accessibility and the Limits of the Equality Act 2010: Time for a UK Accessibility Act? – Current Legal Problems
‘This article makes a case for the introduction of a new UK Accessibility Act to supplement existing equality law and outlines key ingredients to be included in such legislation. Such a reform would fulfil commitments under international human rights law, align with purported cross-government prioritization of accessibility, establish a more joined-up and effective regulatory structure and, most importantly, hasten progress toward a barrier-free society in which disabled people and others are enabled to learn, work, move and live as equals. The article has three main sections. The first elaborates on the accessibility obligations set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also discusses recent legislative responses to these international human rights requirements in the European Union (the European Accessibility Act) and Canada (the Accessible Canada Act). The second section maps out the various accessibility interventions of the Equality Act 2010 and exposes the limits of the current approach, which is patchy, splintered and heavily dependent on expensive and high-risk litigation by individuals. The third section draws on the examples of Canadian and EU legislation to consider what should be included in a new UK Accessibility Act.’
Current Legal Problems, 7th July 2025
Source: doi.org
Rectification, Employment Contracts, and Collective Agreements – Industrial Law Journal
‘One of the oddities of British labour law, especially when compared with its continental and common law cousins, is that collective agreements concluded as a result of the collective bargaining process between an employer and a trade union have no necessary legal effect whether vis-à-vis the employer and the union or vis-à-vis the employer and an individual employee. On the former relationship—which is sometimes referred to the ‘contractual dimension’ of collective agreements—the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, s 179, conclusively presumes that such agreements were not intended by the parties to take effect as legally enforceable contracts unless the agreement is in writing and contains a provision which states that the parties intend that the agreement shall be a legally enforceable contract. As for the latter—which can be referred to as the ‘normative dimension’ of collective agreements, whereby the ‘norms’ in the collective agreement ‘are applied to the individual employment relationship’—ordinarily, for a collective agreement to have any legal effect, it must be incorporated into an individual’s contract of employment and there is no automatic rule to this effect.’
Industrial Law Journal, 9th July 2025
Source: doi.org
Anonymity for Criminal Suspects – 2 Hare Court
‘Criminal lawyers are always aware of our clients’ concerns about adverse publicity during a criminal investigation, prior to charge. Investigations can last many months, even years, only to result in no charges being brought. Maintaining anonymity during that period is often a priority, second only to defending the allegations. In Bloomberg v ZXC [2022] UKSC 5, the Supreme Court confirmed that as a “legitimate starting point” a person under criminal investigation has, prior to charge, a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the investigation. However in any given case it is not certain as a matter of law that the ‘starting point’ is the ‘end point’.’
2 Hare Court, 11th June 2025
Source: www.2harecourt.com
High Court issues ruling on costs charged by borough at summons stage of council tax dispute – Local Government Lawyer
‘Surrey Heath Borough Council issued an unlawful council tax summons but this should not be quashed because the complainant failed to exhaust other options before launching a judicial review, the High Court has found.’
Local Government Lawyer, 10th July 2025
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Judge finds family had “no lawful authority” to move elderly man to care home in Wales from Spain – Local Government Lawyer
‘The Court of Protection has found – following an application by a local authority – that an elderly man’s wife and son had “no lawful authority” to move him to a care home in Wales from Spain, where he was habitually resident.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th July 2025
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Kneecap advert ‘banned’ on London Tube network – BBC News
‘Belfast rap trio Kneecap have said they are “banned” from advertising one of their posters on the London Underground.’
BBC News, 10th July 2025
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Praying in private and Article 9 ECHR: Rafiyev – Law & Religion UK
‘In Rafiyev v Azerbaijan [2025] ECHR 171, Mr Rafiyev was a follower of the Nurism sect of Islam [5]. In 2017, after attending a funeral, he and others visited a friend, TA, at his house and, at around 1 pm, several police officers raided the house and arrested Mr Rafiyev and twenty-one others. They were ultimately charged with violating the rules on holding religious meetings, contrary to Article 515.0.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences [6&7]. He was found guilty; the court accepted the police evidence that, following the funeral ceremony, he had gone to TA’s house and had prayed, though he had not known that praying at TA’s house had constituted “a religious meeting” [9]. His appeal was unsuccessful [10&11]. Before the ECtHR, he complained of breaches of Article 5 (liberty and security), Article 6 (fair trial) and Article 9 (thought, conscience and religion).’
Law & Religion UK, 10th July 2025
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
Focus on sections 90 and 91of Law of Property Act 1925 – Falcon Chambers
‘Where a creditor seeks to enforce a charging order, or other equitable charge made without a deed, by sale of the property, they must apply to the court for an order for sale. Sections 90 and 91 of the Law of Property Act 1925 provide a means for that to take place through the legal mechanism of vesting a term of years in the mortgagee/charge.’
Falcon Chambers, 18th June 2025
Source: www.falcon-chambers.com
George Peretz: The Labour Case for the ECHR – UK Constitutional Law Association
‘In a series of posts on this blog, the legal historian Sanjit Nagi has outlined both a history of Labour scepticism about the European Convention of Human Rights (“ECHR”) (and in particular about the role of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”)) dating back to the Attlee government and a set of theoretical objections that have informed the strand of Labour Party thinking that continues to share that scepticism – most obviously in the case of Lord Glasman, who has called for the UK to leave the ECHR and “scrap” the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”).’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 10th July 2025
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
Leveson report: diversion welcome but no need to curtail trial by jury, warns Bar Council – The Bar Council
‘The Bar Council has welcomed the focus on diversion from the criminal justice system in the new report by Sir Brian Leveson but warned against proposals to remove jury trials.’
The Bar Council, 9th July 2025
Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk
Man found guilty of ‘Good Samaritan’ murder – BBC News
‘A man who killed a passer-by when he drove his car into a crowd of people at his sister’s wedding reception has been found guilty of murder.’
BBC News, 9th July 2025
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
