[New post] The Weekly Round-Up: unlawful care home policies, new legislation and voter ID

Matthew Johnson posted: " Image from: https://news.sky.com/story/mps-vote-for-controversial-legislation-to-introduce-voter-id-12518783 In the news: Last week saw an influx of legislation approved before Parliament's Thursday end-of-session deadline. Some include: The N" The Weekly Round-Up: unlawful care home policies, new legislation and voter ID Matthew Johnson May 2 Image from: https://news.sky.com/story/mps-vote-for-controversial-legislation-to-introduce-voter-id-12518783 In the news: Last week saw an influx of legislation approved before Parliament's Thursday end-of-session deadline. Some include: The Nationality and Borders Act. Three of the most controversial provisions are: to allow asylum claims to be handled at overseas facilities (offshoring asylum); criminalising those who knowingly arrive in the UK illegally; and treating asylum seekers differently depending on how they enter the UK. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. Another turbulent journey to Royal Assent, this grants police extra powers to quash disruptive demonstrations. This is done by increasing restrictions on protests where 'noise' could cause 'serious disruption', and by criminalising activity which causes 'serious distress, serious annoyance or serious inconvenience' without 'reasonable excuse'. The Judicial Review and Courts Act. This was passed after a last-minute amendment proposed by the Law Society to remove a statutory presumption. The presumption would have dictated to judges what remedies they could award in place of judicial discretion. The Elections Act. This requires voters to present photo ID at polling stations, justified by the government as making the electoral system 'secure, transparent and fair for generations to come'. However, there is a fear this could see many would-be voters turned away. An independent review by Jonathan Hall QC has concluded that terrorists in prison 'enjoy high status' within a culture of fear and violence across English and Welsh jails. The review details examples of 'Islamic gang-like activity', exacerbated by the 27% cut in staff between 2010 and 2017. A separate report by Hall also discovered that the Government does not keep a record, 'officially or unofficially', of the number of prosecuted terrorists returning to the UK from Syria. In other news: Insulate Britain have followed up on their threats last week to disrupt hearings by glueing themselves to magistrates court furniture. Dr Diana Warner superglued her hand to the glass dock and ignored court instructions, instead paying tribute to the activist who died after setting himself on fire outside the US Supreme Court. Victims of sexual offences are subject to the longest waiting period on record, with an average of 9 months for cases to go through Crown Courts. Data also demonstrates that the speed of cases depends on their location, with cases in Leicester taking the longest to complete (on average 15 months). Read more of this post Comment Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from UK Human Rights Blog. Change your email settings at manage subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://ukhumanrightsblog.com Powered by WordPress.com