Category: news

‘On 8 August 2025, the Divisional Court (Dingemans LJ, Chamberlain and Johnson JJ) published the OPEN version of a previously CLOSED judgment, dated 19 April 2024, in which it allowed a claim for judicial review by two claimants (a judge and journalist) who were identified in the leaked Afghan relocation dataset, against their exclusion from the bespoke relocation scheme the Government set up in the data leak’s aftermath. At the time of the claim, the claimants were unaware about the decisions which were subject to this challenge; their claims were advanced by Special Advocates in CLOSED proceedings.’

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Administrative Court Blog, 10th August 2025

Source: administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com

‘A landlord who raised concerns about the ‘unhealthy connection’ between housing disrepair solicitors and the surveyors they instruct has failed to have two claims struck out.’

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Law Society Gazette, 11th August 2025

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

‘The High Court has suggested a legal representative may need to explain ‘specifically’ who can and cannot be shown a judgment after the latest breach of a judgment embargo.’

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Law Society Gazette, 11th August 2025

Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk

‘Following King LJ’s judgment in Helliwell v Entwistle [2025] EWCA Civ 1055, Sir Nicholas Mostyn reconsiders his reasoning in Cummings v Fawn [2023] EWHC 830 (Fam) and concludes that some of his language needs to be modified.’

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Financial Remedies Journal, 8th August 2025

Source: financialremediesjournal.com

‘When it comes to the Lucy Letby case, there are two parallel universes. In one, the question of her guilt is settled. She is a monster who murdered seven babies and attempted to murder seven more while she was a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. In the other universe, Letby is the victim of a flawed criminal justice system in which unreliable medical evidence was used to condemn and imprison an innocent woman.’

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BBC News, 11th August 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘Oligarchs whose business empire was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office spied on lawyers who ran some of the UK’s most sensitive criminal cases.’

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The Guardian, 10th August 2025

Source: www.theguardian.com

‘More foreign criminals will be deported before their appeals against their removal are heard as the Home Office adds 15 new countries to its “deport now, appeal later” scheme.’

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BBC News, 11th Auguse 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘A Black warehouse worker has won a race harassment claim after a disgruntled colleague wrote the word “slave” on a piece of machinery.’

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The Guardian, 5th August 2025

Source: www.theguardian.com

‘The body running courts in England and Wales has been accused of a cover-up, after a leaked report found it took several years to react to an IT bug that caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost.’

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BBC News, 8th August 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘Restrictions on serious sexual and violent criminals forcing them stay in specific areas are being planned by the government.’

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BBC News, 8th August 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘Comfort Olufunmilayo Olawo, 82, spent decades flying between UK and Nigeria on tourist visas every six months.’

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The Guardian, 2nd August 2025

Source: www.theguardian.com

‘Law and policy concerning personal decision-making increasingly recognizes a role for support to enable greater autonomy and legal recognition for adults whose decision-making ability may be limited. Support for decision making (SFDM) is embedded in England and Wales under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). It has also gained traction internationally through the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), to which the UK is a signatory. However, these two legal reference points diverge in their understanding of SFDM, which presents challenges for putting it into practice. A pragmatic review methodology identified 40 resources containing SFDM guidance, providing insight into its implementation and conceptualization in England. An analysis indicates the need for authoritative guidance that provides more multifaceted advice, recognizing key variables including: the nature of the decision, source of decision-making difficulties, and the relationship of the supporter. Gaps in guidance provision are also identified for decision-makers, third parties, and the mental health context. The resources largely conceptualize SFDM as a means to enable mental capacity. However, recent developments propose a CRPD-aligned approach that includes SFDM in the context of substituted decisions. This generates a dualistic model of SFDM in England, raising new questions in this area.’

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Medical Law Review, 31st July 2025

Source: academic.oup.com

‘What progress have bills announced in the 2024 King’s Speech made in the current Parliament?’

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House of Commons Library, 6th August 2025

Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk

‘Judges need to be “on their guard” about expert witness evidence, according to a leading supreme court judge, who urged the legal profession to improve their “scientific and technical literacy” to help prevent miscarriages of justice.’

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The Guardian, 8th August 2025

Source: www.theguardian.com

‘Millions of people involved in running UK businesses will be required to verify their identity with Companies House, the UK registry for companies, beginning from the middle of November this year.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 6th August 2025

Source: www.pinsentmasons.com

‘The Qualifying Law Degree (QLD) resulted in law degrees tending to be similar in design, with compulsory foundation modules at their core. The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) represents a significant change to solicitor qualification and potentially frees universities from the constraints of the foundations. There was also speculation that some universities would feel pressure to align undergraduate curricula to the SQE. This paper makes a contribution to knowledge by undertaking the first content analysis of LLB webpages since the SQE’s implementation. The data reveals that: (1) law schools still overwhelmingly require mandatory study of all the foundations; (2) there has been an incremental shift towards vocationalism; (3) a small minority of webpages may be overstating the extent that their LLB prepares students for the SQE; and (4) a significant proportion of webpages contain factually inaccurate or confusing information about programmes or routes to qualification. It confirms an inherent irony: the deregulation of undergraduate solicitor education in England and Wales had led to more vocational alignment than experienced under the previous system but has not resulted in a significant shift away from the foundations. We present a novel explanation as to why this is the case, based on institutional theory and organisational strategic theory.’

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Legal Studies, 31st July 2025

Source: www.cambridge.org

‘A prisoner trapped on an indefinite jail term has been cleared of multiple counts of criminal damage to a maximum-security prison after using the toll of his sentence as a defence in what is believed to be a legal first.’

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The Independent, 6th August 2025

Source: www.independent.co.uk

‘A High Court judge has criticised a police force for “unjustifiable redactions” in a child proceedings case, noting that the failure led to both delay and a “significant waste of public funds”.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 7th August 2025

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘The Ministry of Justice published guidance on 2 June 2025 regarding the introduction of new legislation to prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”) by higher education institutions in relation to certain complaints under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (“the Act”). The changes, which had originally been given Royal Assent in 2023, but were placed on hold when the new Government came into power, took effect on 1 August 2025. The higher education sector is leading the way when it comes to the use of NDAs and, while the changes will not see a total ban on NDAs, it paves the way forward for greater transparency and accountability during student misconduct proceedings.’

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Kingsley Napley Regulatory Blog, 7th August 2025

Source: www.kingsleynapley.co.uk

‘The High Court has ruled that an asylum seeker from Ethiopia should be accommodated as a “putative child” pending resolution of a dispute regarding his age, ordering interim relief against the defendant council as the maker of the impugned decision.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 5th August 2025

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk