Category: news

‘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.’

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Industrial Law Journal, 9th July 2025

Source: doi.org

‘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’.’

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2 Hare Court, 11th June 2025

Source: www.2harecourt.com

‘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.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 10th July 2025

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘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.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 11th July 2025

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘Belfast rap trio Kneecap have said they are “banned” from advertising one of their posters on the London Underground.’

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BBC News, 10th July 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.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).’

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Law & Religion UK, 10th July 2025

Source: lawandreligionuk.com

‘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.’

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Falcon Chambers, 18th June 2025

Source: www.falcon-chambers.com

‘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”).’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 10th July 2025

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

‘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.’

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The Bar Council, 9th July 2025

Source: www.barcouncil.org.uk

‘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.’

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BBC News, 9th July 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘The available research on specialist policing responses to violence against women and girls highlights multiple benefits. However, there is limited evidence about the key features of specialist units, the specific mechanisms that lead to improved outcomes, and the extent to which procedural justice theory can be seen to underpin specialist alternatives to “business as usual” policing approaches. This paper advances knowledge on the topic of specialist policing units designed to improve the response to VAWG, with a specific focus on domestic abuse, by reporting findings from two interlinked mixed-methods research projects that took place in Wales during 2023–2024, including workshops with representatives from the four police forces and a case study from one police force. Several types of data were collected and analysed: focus groups with police (n = 10 participants), interviews with police and partner agencies (n = 10), domestic abuse cases referred to a specialist unit over a 9-month period (n = 387), and survey feedback from domestic abuse victims (n = 413). The workshops revealed strong consensus around specialist units having a defined remit and a clear mission of being victim-led, with dedicated time and resources including specialist knowledge and expertise and arrangements in place for working in close collaboration with partner agencies. The Operation Diogel case study demonstrated how these underlying mechanisms generated a range of improvements when put into practice, including higher victim satisfaction, better safeguarding and criminal justice outcomes, and enhanced tradecraft, teamworking and morale amongst the officers involved.’

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Policing and Society, 1st July 2025

Source: www.tandfonline.com

‘Calls for withdrawal and kneejerk defences of the status quo each risk oversimplifying the UK’s developing political debate about the European Convention on Human Rights. The implications of each position must at least be properly understood if the debate is to be a meaningful one.’

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Public Law for Everyone, 9th July 2025

Source: publiclawforeveryone.com

‘Insolvency practitioners in England and Wales have been served a timely reminder about the importance of ensuring investigations are promptly carried out so that claims can be properly advanced and issued before the limitation period expires.’

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OUT-LAW.com, 9th July 2025

Source: www.pinsentmasons.com

‘A High Court judge has outlined what can be learned from matters going well in a Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) case involving a 17-year-old woman who has now turned 18.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 10th July 2025

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

‘How should the state be held to account when it funds and organises essential services—but then denies responsibility for their failure? This post examines that question through the lens of disability-related home adaptations in the UK. It explores how the legal and administrative structures surrounding the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) scheme allow local authorities to exert control while evading public law responsibility. Drawing on a real-life case, the analysis raises wider constitutional concerns about the limits of state accountability, the legal fictions that shield public bodies, and the consequences of governance frameworks that prioritise autonomy and cost-efficiency over care and justice.’

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UK Constitutional Law Association, 9th July 2025

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org

‘The facts of Adriatic Land 5 Limited v Long Leaseholders at Hippersley Point [2025] EWCA Civ 856 are straightforward enough. The applicant landlord owned a large building. That building needed significant works to restore and update its cladding and other materials to meet relevant safety standards. These works were carried out in 2020. In 2022 the Building Safety Act (BSA) was passed by Parliament. That Act contained a section (paragraph 9 to Schedule 8 of the Act) which states that “no service charge is payable” in respect to the services undertaken by the applicant.’

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Administrative Court Blog, 9th July 2025

Source: administrativecourtblog.wordpress.com

‘The head of the infected blood inquiry yesterday called on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to tell solicitors that they should not be charging clients making a claim for compensation.’

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Legal Futures, 10th July 2025

Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk

‘A wanted man who was on the run for two years has been found guilty of murdering a woman who was walking her dog last summer.’

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BBC News, 9th July 2025

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

‘This study investigates intersectional inequalities in trust in the police in England using multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) for the first time. We find that those who are non-White, from lower social classes, and reside in London show lower predicted trust levels than other people. While older people show higher predicted trust levels, younger people, especially those from marginalised backgrounds, have the lowest predicted levels of trust in the police. We also find intersectional effects. While middle-aged White males from lower social classes and living outside of London have lower than-expected trust in the police, older White females from lower social classes and living outside of London have higher than-expected trust in the police. We argue that ground-level, community engagement, coupled with extensive officer training on engaging with individuals from diverse backgrounds, are key to developing higher levels of trust in the police.’

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Policing and Society, 7th July 2025

Source: www.tandfonline.com

‘David Gauke’s Independent Sentencing Review was published on 22 May 2025 in response to what was described as a “crisis in prison capacity”. The aim of the report’s recommendations is to reduce the prison population. In broad terms it does so by transferring the burden from the prison service to the probation service.’

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2 Hare Court, 11th June 2025

Source: www.2harecourt.com