‘A woman in a long-term relationship with a 92-year-old German chandelier has been told that her attraction to historic light fittings is not considered to be a protected sexual orientation.’
The Guardian, 14th April 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Following the Supreme Court’s refusal to permit an appeal in Chief Constable of Leicestershire v Hextall, the Court of Appeal’s earlier judgment remains binding. In a case which brings the paradoxes inherent in the UK’s system of workplace parental rights into sharp focus, the Court held that it is not discriminatory to pay a man on shared parental leave (SPL) less than an enhanced rate of maternity pay paid to a woman on maternity leave (ML).’
Oxford Human Rights Hub, 7th April 2020
Source: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal over a council’s decision to amend its Special Educational Needs Home to School/College Transport Policy for the 2019/20 academic year.’
Local Government Lawyer, 7th April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The UK government must ensure pupils from poor backgrounds have computers and internet connections during the coronavirus lockdown or face legal action for depriving children of their education, according to a group of legal activists.’
The Guardian, 6th April 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Councils cannot treat disabled facilities grant (DFG) applications from council tenants differently to those from others, the High Court has ruled.’
Local Government Lawyer, 3rd April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (‘NICE’) has changed the COVID-19 guideline for clinical care after being threatened with a judicial review challenge.’
Local Government Lawyer, 1st April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Medway Council has lodged an appeal against a High Court decision which found that a joint committee of clinical commissioning groups had acted lawfully when dealing with health inequalities when they decided the locations of three hyper acute stroke units (HASUs) in Kent.’
Local Government Lawyer, 31st March 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The proportion of solicitors who attended state schools is creeping upwards, but those who went to fee-paying schools dominate corporate work, according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).’
Legal Futures, 31st March 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The Divisional Court will this week (3 April) consider whether to suspend the Home Office’s ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) policy.’
Local Government Lawyer, 30th March 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A London family has launched legal action over the role of police officers in schools, amid concerns that their presence could have disproportionately negative consequences for black and minority ethnic groups.’
The Guardian, 30th March 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘In Forstater v CGD (2019), a think tank did not renew its contract for consultancy services with the claimant, Maya Forstater, allegedly because of Forstater expressing so-called ‘gender critical’ beliefs. Forstater claimed that she had suffered direct discrimination for having a protected belief under section 10 of the Equality Act 2010. In a preliminary decision, the employment tribunal considered whether the claimant’s belief was indeed protected. Tayler J identified the core of the claimant’s belief to be that sex is biologically immutable and, in no circumstances, is a trans woman ‘a woman’ or a trans man ‘a man’, even when the person in question has a Gender Recognition Certificate under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (paragraph [77]). Due to the belief’s ‘no circumstances’ aspect, the judge labelled it ‘absolutist’ ([84]).’
Oxford Human Rights Hub, 22nd March 2020
Source: ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
‘Mr Ishola was employed by the respondent (TfL) as a customer services administrator. He was at all material times a disabled person suffering with depression and migraines. He raised a grievance about the conduct of a colleague in April 2015 which was not upheld, shortly after which he went on long-term sick leave. The sickness absence was managed by the respondent through a process of referrals to occupational health doctors and management review meetings. Ms Bhaimia was appointed as the “People Management Adviser” (or PMA) responsible for dealing with the claimant. The task of managing his absence on sick leave was given to Mr Walters.’
3PB, 2nd March 2020
Source: www.3pb.co.uk
‘The UK government is facing a legal challenge over claims it is failing to protect the wages and jobs of millions of workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.’
Each Other, 23rd March 2020
Source: eachother.org.uk
‘Can a group of predominantly female retail store employees compare themselves to a group of predominantly male distribution depot employees for the purposes of an equal pay claim? The Supreme Court will have the final say on this question this year, in the highly anticipated appeal in Asda Stores Ltd v Brierley and other.’
Old Square Chambers, 12th March 2020
Source: www.oldsquare.co.uk
‘A union representing legal workers has expressed outrage at the “classist allocation of risk” that is seeing law firm partners work from home while other staff are forced into the office during the coronavirus pandemic.’
Legal Futures, 18th March 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The Claimants were two police officers aged 48 and 44 who were disabled under Equality Act 2010 (EqA). Because they were also unable to carry out the normal duties of a police officer, they were both awarded “H1 certificates” by the Force Medical Officer, which among other things, gave them the right to have immediate access to their pension (which would otherwise be deferred) if they left the police force before their normal retirement age.’
Old Square Chambers, 3rd March 2020
Source: www.oldsquare.co.uk
‘The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has called for the suspension of the use of automated facial recognition (AFR) and predictive algorithms in policing in England and Wales, “until their impact has been independently scrutinised and laws are improved”.’
Local Government Lawyer, 13th March 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Many disabled solicitors have downplayed the extent of their disability because they do not trust law firms to meet their needs, research has revealed.’
Legal Futures, 16th March 2020
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Equal treatment, the principle that like cases should be treated alike, occupies a paradoxically ambivalent place within moral and legal discussion of equality. In one sense, it is an essential feature of justice that similarly situated persons be afforded similar treatment and that differences in treatment be adequately justified. This principle is informed by and presupposes the moral equality of persons, without which the demand for justification of departures from consistent treatment would be unintelligible. However, in another sense, equalisation of treatment, purely for the sake of equalisation, gives rise to the now well established “levelling-down” objection: a requirement of equalisation can be satisfied either by treating people equally badly or by replicating wrongful forms of treatment, even when we are aware that the treatment in question is wrongful. The levelling-down objection indicates that equalisation for its own sake is unlikely to be intrinsically valuable, even if there may be some instrumental reasons to do so.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 9th March 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘A dossier of more than 300 allegations of Islamophobia in the Conservative party has been submitted to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, increasing pressure on the watchdog to launch a formal investigation.’
The Guardian, 5th March 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
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