‘The number of criminal cases waiting to be dealt with by Crown Courts threatens to overwhelm the justice system in England and Wales, a study suggests.’
BBC News, 30th October 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Legal aid services are on the brink of collapse due to successive cuts and the disruption wreaked by Covid-19, say lawyers.’
The Guardian, 29th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Concerns are growing that a service to help people follow court proceedings in England and Wales is to be privatised and deregulated.’
The Guardian, 28th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Prosecutions for crimes against women and girls in England and Wales plummeted in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting a backlog in the court system exacerbated by the UK-wide shutdown and subsequent social distancing measures.’
The Guardian, 22nd October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The scorn shown by Boris Johnson and Priti Patel marks a departure from centuries of Conservative tradition.’
The Guardian, 20th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The government’s £1bn court reforms have had a “disappointingly slow” start in collecting the information required to ensure the justice system is fair, according to researchers.’
Legal Futures, 20th October 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The last thing the country needs is a government in which ministers exercise “unbridled power”, the UK’s longest serving supreme court justice has said.’
The Guardian, 19th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The sentences handed down to the killers of PC Andrew Harper have sparked much public debate and resulted in his widow and mother launching rival campaigns calling for tougher punishments for those who kill emergency services workers.’
BBC News, 18th October 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘There has, in recent years, been a proliferation of case law on appeals against deportation by foreign national criminals on grounds of private and family life. The statutory scheme is complex enough, but the various tests (“unduly harsh”, “very compelling circumstances”) have also been subject to extensive judicial gloss, leaving practitioners and judges to wade through a confusing sea of alphabet-country soup case names.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 16th October 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The new president of the Law Society on why it’s crucial to defend the rule of law in these febrile times.’
The Guardian, 14th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Britain’s top lawyers have written to Priti Patel to express their concern after a knifeman threatened to kill an immigration solicitor last month in an attack colleagues say was directly motivated by comments made by the home secretary.’
The Guardian, 10th October 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The court system faces a trade-off between the quality of justice and the cost of delivering it, former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption has said in a biting assessment of virtual hearings. Speaking at the Commercial Litigators’ Forum, Lord Sumption (Jonathan Sumption QC) said if quality of justice was the only concern “we would go back to ordinary oral hearings.” ‘
Law Society's Gazette, 5th October 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The level of educational achievement by incarcerated offenders in the UK is far lower than the average. In addition, 40-50% of prisoners assessed in John Rack’s research for the Dyslexia Institute (2005) were at or below levels of literacy and numeracy expected of an 11-year old. In 2007, the Prison Reform Trust reported that prison populations who showed serious deficits in literacy and numeracy reached up to 60% with a 30% dyslexia rate. This literacy problem extends to oral speech. People in the Criminal Justice System are ten times more likely to have a Speech and Communication Difficulty than members of the public. Research shows that 60% of young male offenders have a communication deficit as opposed to 3-10% of the general population (Available evidence for young female and adult offenders shows similarly high levels of speech-difficulties.) In the UK, low socio-economic status (SES), speech difficulty and school exclusions are co-morbid factors for offending. Having a speech difficulty also makes it near impossible for anyone with significant communication difficulties to navigate a legal system built upon excessive jargon without help. The criminal justice system must make structural interventions to protect the rights of persons with Speech and Communication Difficulty.’
Oxford Human Rights Hub, 17th September 2020
Source: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
‘The Overseas Operation (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in March 2020 and is due its second reading on 23 September 2020. In short, the Bill aims to limit prosecution and civil proceedings against military personnel, as well as to enable the UK government to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) during combat operations. The Bill emerges in response to what numerous Defence Secretaries have referred to as the “judicialisation of war”, a term which has been used to resist the application of the ECHR to overseas military combat operations. Despite the Bill being described as a way to protect soldiers from the “industry” of “vexatious claims” and preserve the ability of combat forces to fight wars effectively, there is every suggestion that this is really about precluding, or at least severely limiting, the accountability of the British state in its overseas military deployments.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 22nd September 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
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