Mr Hugh Edwards (63) has been sentenced by a court to a sentence of imprisonment - 6 months suspended for 2 years. He resigned from the BBC in 2024, during a police investigation into possession of indecent images of children to which he pleaded guilty. At the BBC, Edwards anchored coverage of state and international events including the Coronation of King Charles III. The suspended prison sentence is subject to requirements and also to notification requirement under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 - (see HERE). Nobody ought to be under the illusion that any of the requirements ar ..read more

The House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee has published a report urging a major overhaul of the way public inquiries are set up and conducted. The report calls for significant improvements to the inquiry system, to make them more efficient and effective and to avoid the costly and wasteful process of inquiries “reinventing the wheel”. The 63 page report is HERE (pdf) and see Lords committee calls for major overhaul of public inquiries - UK Parliament Among the main recommendations of the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee are: A timescale for inquiries ..read more

Politically, the new (Labour) government made a choice to remove Winter Fuel payments from all the elderly apart from those who qualify for pension credits. Many Labour backbench MPs - often with slim majorities from the recent general election - are unhappy -see Keir Starmer under pressure as row grows over cut to winter fuel payments | ITV News and  Is there a £22bn ‘black hole’ in the UK’s public finances? - BBC News. Of course, millionaires hardly need a winter fuel payment but it is risible to describe, as some have, the majority of pensioners as "millionaires" and tho ..read more

Grenfell Tower Inquiry Grenfell Tower Inquiry - YouTube On 14 June 2017, a fire occurred at Grenfell Tower, Kensington. The resident promptly contacted emergency services but the fire spread rapidly. That was principally due to cladding on the building which contained Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) with a polyethylene core. 72 lives were lost and many made homeless. The Prime Minister, then Theresa May, set up an inquiry to be held under the Inquiries Act 2005 and appointed a former Lord Justice of Appeal - Sir Martin Moore-Bick - as its chair. Here are the reports from the Grenfell T ..read more

Senior District Judge Goldspring (Chief Magistrate) has issued an 18 page ruling (dated 15 August 2024) relating to private prosecutions by Northern Trains Ltd and Greater Anglia in connection with avoidance of fares.  The prosecutions were brought under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 section 5 and were dealt with in Magistrates' Courts using "Single Justice Procedure (SJP)." This was not permissible ..... The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (New Method of Instituting Proceedings) (Specification of Relevant Prosecutors) Order 2016 permit the use of SJP for "railway offences" but the ..read more

19 October 2022 - House of Lords Library - Freedom of expression online: Communications and Digital Committee report - House of Lords Library (parliament.uk) The rights and limits to freedom of expression Freedom of expression is the right to express and receive opinions, ideas and information. Expression and exchanges of views increasingly take place online, including through social media platforms, websites and search engines. The right to freedom of expression is balanced by the responsibilities held by government, media and technology, and citizens. It is not an unrestricted right and is ..read more

On 8 August 2024, in the Crown Court at Liverpool, two men were sentenced to imprisonment for offences connected to recent public disorder. John O' Malley (age 43) and William Nelson-Morgan (age 69) each received 32 months for separate offences of violent disorder (Public Order Act 1986 s.2).  Nelson-Morgan also received a concurrent sentence of 6 months for possession of an offensive weapon and also a serious violence reduction order (SVRO) which will take effect on his release from custody and will last for 2 years. The sentencing remarks of His Honour Judge Menary KC are at  ..read more

One of the consequences of the disorder experienced over recent days will be claims for compensation but what can be claimed? Compensation used to be governed by the Riot (Damages) Act 1866 (now repealed). The 1866 Act was tested after the 2011 riots but, in Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co [2016] UKSC 18, the Supreme Court held that the Act did NOT cover consequential losses. For example, a claim under the Act was possible if (say) business premises were directly damaged but loss of profits could not be claimed. Following the 2011 disorder, the H ..read more

At Liverpool on 1 August 2024, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana (aged 17) was remanded to youth detention accommodation. He is charged with the murders of Bebe King (age six); Elsie Dot Stancombe (age seven), and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (age 9). He is further charged with the attempted murders of ten  others (8 children and 2 adults) and also with possession of a bladed article. The alleged offences occurred at a dance class at the Hart Space in Southport. The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool (HHJ Andrew Menary KC) ruled that the young person could be named - see Youth Justice and Criminal ..read more

A Law Commission report in 2015 recommended the replacement of the common law offence of public nuisance. Government took no action on this aspect of the report until the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 section 78. The section is a new statutory offence of "Intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance" and it has a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment. The section also provides a defence of "reasonable excuse" - see section 78(3).  The 2022 Act was a further step in placing ever-increasing restrictions on protest within England and Wales. This pro ..read more