‘Two recent Court of Appeal decisions raise some interesting constitutional questions about the status of Tribunals in the UK legal system. This post (in two parts) seeks to explore some of the implications and suggests that a key constitutional principle, the separation of powers, has once again been neglected. The two cases are Roszkowski v Secretary State for the Home Department (‘Roszkowski’) and R (Privacy International) v Investigatory Powers Tribunal (‘Privacy International’). Privacy International has received considerably more coverage than Roszkowski and is rumoured to be on the way to the Supreme Court. It has already been addressed on this blog by Thomas Fairclough and elsewhere by Mark Elliott. Roszkowski explores the implications of an important and controversial Supreme Court case, R (Evans) v Attorney General (‘Evans’) and contains some critical comment on the reasoning of Lord Neuberger in that case.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 8th December 2017
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘Numbers can be anathema to many lawyers. Yet statistics are a useful weapon in the litigation armoury. This week the Government released its Race Disparity Audit which provides a wealth of such statistics and is a timely reminder of the role that they can play in litigation. Tom Gillie discusses three recent examples of how statistics can be used to advance successful arguments in employment litigation and broader equality context, for example, in relation to the provision of goods, facilities and services.’
Cloisters, 12th October 2017
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘Freedom of religion and same-sex equality are not inherently incompatible. But sometimes they do seem to be on a collision course. This happens, for instance, when religiously devout marriage officers refuse to marry same-sex couples. In the wake of legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the world, states have grappled with civil servants who cannot reconcile their legal duties with their religious beliefs.’
OUP Blog, 9th October 2017
Source: blog.oup.com
‘A civil servant and her husband kept an African woman in servitude at their home, a judge has concluded.’
The Guardian, 21st August 2017
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘An investigation into the abuse of MPs and parliamentary candidates is considering whether new laws are needed to protect public servants because of the rise of social media.’
The Independent, 24th July 2017
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Proposals by the Law Commission to reform the 1989 Official Secrets Act (OSA) could lead to the imprisonment of civil servants and journalists for disclosing information that would be available to anyone asking for it under the Freedom of Information Act, a leading campaigner for freedom of information has said.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 15th May 2017
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Last November the judge decided that the UK’s air pollution plans under EU and domestic laws were not good enough. The case has a long, and unedifying back-story of Government not doing what the law says it should do.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 16th May 2017
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘Robin Allen QC and Anna Beale consider the latest case on indirect discrimination and ask the pressing question: are equal pay cases suddenly significantly easier for Claimants?’
Cloisters, 5th April 2017
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘In the joined cases of Essop and Naeem ([2017] UKSC 27) the Supreme Court has taken on a daunting task: the simplification of indirect discrimination law. This is not a case note in the usual sense. We have not set out the facts, the law and then a statement of what is novel. At the hearing we tried to give the Supreme Court a new vocabulary to use as a tool for its analysis. The aim of this note is to explain that language as simply as we can. If we succeed, what we have to say will seem obvious. Those reading Lady Hale’s judgment (with which all of their Lordships agreed) will have had that experience. She has distilled, from an area of law that was submerging into great complexity, a handful of principles that dispel confusion and whch make intractable issues straightforward.’
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 5th April 2017
Source: www.11kbw.com
‘Black immigration officers struggled to pass promotion exams because the tests were racist, a court has heard. A group of 49 Home Office employees is now set to sue the Government over claims that the exams are discriminatory.’
Daily Telegraph, 5th April 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The 300-year-old custom of clerks wearing wigs in the Commons has been scrapped to save money and make the Commons “less stuffy”.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th February 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The monitoring officer at Slough, Gurpreet Anand, has issued a statutory report amid claims that the Leader of the borough council unlawfully sought to re-designate the role.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th September 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Personal data security was breached nearly 9,000 times by the government in a year, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found. The watchdog revealed the 17 largest departments recorded 8,995 data breaches in 2014-15 – but that only 14 were reported to the Information Commissioner (ICO).’
The Guardian, 14th September 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A Department for Education manager who defrauded the Government of more than £1m to buy a luxury flat has been jailed after he was turned in by his mother.’
Daily Telegraph, 16th June 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Ministers have ordered an immediate inquiry into allegations that former senior civil servants from the Ministry of Justice have used their Whitehall knowledge and contacts to help private companies secure government contracts worth millions.’
The Guardian, 14th March 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Public accounts committee says Cabinet Office has shown a lack of urgency in strengthening laws to protect public servants.’
The Guardian, 11th March 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Civil servants overseeing the e-Borders programme have been accused by parliament’s spending watchdog of being “complacent” and “worryingly dismissive” of failings that could damage national security.’
The Guardian, 4th March 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Prime Minister says that prisoners should not have to submit a list of previous convictions when initially applying for jobs’
Daily Telegraph, 8th February 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Advice given to ministers by civil servants should not be excluded from freedom of information legislation, according to the official responsible for overseeing the workings of the act.’
The Guardian, 20th January 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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