News round up
2016 Queen’s Speech: the government’s agenda explained
The government’s policies and proposed legislative programme for the new parliamentary session was set out in the Queen’s Speech in May. The key pieces of legislation the administration will be seeking to pass over the next 12 months are summarised below.
Prison and Courts Reform Bill: to reform prisons to ensure that they are places of rehabilitation, with governors given the freedom to find better ways of improving education, healthcare and security for prisoners and improve life chances for all.
Bill of Rights: to reform the UK human rights framework, and repeal the Human Rights Act 1998.
Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill:to provide stronger powers to disrupt extremists and protect the public.
Criminal Finances Bill:to allow the government to recoup more criminal assets by reforming the law on proceeds of crime, including provisions to strengthen enforcement powers.
Investigatory Powers Bill:to modernise the law for the digital age, and introduce new authorisation and oversight arrangements, and provide the police and security and intelligence agencies with additional powers.
Policing and Crime Bill: to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces, and enhance the democratic accountability of police forces and fire and rescue services.
Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill:with the aim of delivering one million new homes while protecting the Green Belt, and transforming the way government plans for major infrastructure projects.
Higher Education and Research Bill:to deliver greater competition and choice by making it easier for new, high-quality universities to set up, and cement the UK’s position as a world leader on the research and innovation stage.
Better Markets Bill: to open up markets; boost competition; give consumers more power and choice; and make economic regulators work better.
Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill: to reform the law of unjustified threats of infringement proceedings for patents, trademarks and design rights, and deliver the Law Commission’s detailed recommendations for reform.
Draft Law of Property Bill: to enable the government to bring forward proposals responding to the recommendations of a 2011 Law Commission report on simplifying land ownership law.
Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association protocol
A protocol on prosecution inadequate or late disclosure has been adopted by the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association because of the ‘repeated failure of the prosecution to serve adequate initial details of their case (IDPC)’ under Criminal Procedure Rules 2015 r8. (3), and also to deal with ‘late disclosure by the prosecution or failure to comply with time limits for service of evidence’ .
Sharia law review
An independent review into the application of Sharia law in England and Wales has been launched by Home Secretary Theresa May. The review will be chaired by Professor Mona Siddiqui OBE. The terms of reference set out the review’s intention to explore whether, and to what extent, the application of Sharia law may be incompatible with the law in England and Wales. The panel will begin work immediately, and is expected to issue a call for evidence. The group is likely to complete its review in 2017.
Correction
In ‘London Legal Support Trust: doing more than walk the walk’ (2016) June CILExJ p11, the published photograph was not that of London Legal Support Trust interns as indicated.
CILEx urges joint working on future of McKenzie Friends
CILEx has supported proposals that would prevent uninsured and unregulated persons from charging the public for representing them in court, but is open to ‘adopting shared approaches to education and training’ with other organisations.
Simon Garrod, CILEx director of policy and governance, said: ‘McKenzie Friends may come from a variety of sources and the majority will be acting with complete propriety; however, we do not think it appropriate to charge for legal services without guaranteeing the public sufficient protections and redress. We are open to how we, as approved regulators, can work together to improve standards and ensure the public can be confident in the people who support them through the courts.’
- Consultation on reforming the courts approach to McKenzie Friends: a submission by the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), available here.
CILEx wins MemCom social mobility award
CILEx scooped the award for ‘Best social mobility initiative by a professional body’ in the MemCom Membership Awards held in London in May. The awards recognise excellence in membership organisation communications.
The social mobility initiative category was introduced this year to recognise the changing work of professional bodies. The judging panel, in its citation for the award, said: ‘CILEx is the only route into the legal profession which is truly open to all whatever their background. Going further in this area, their new CILEx Tech Level 3 Diploma in Law and Legal Skills, launching this year, is designed specifically for 16–18 year olds. It will enable young people to choose to study practical legal skills and knowledge, and gain valuable work experience that will allow them to embark on a fulfilling career in law. The judges were impressed with CILEx’s work in this area, including publishing member stats on background and diversity.’
CILEx Law School ‘highly commended’ at Innovation Awards
CILEx Law School (CLS) was highly commended for its apprenticeship work in the supplier innovation (services) category at the Legal Week Innovation Awards. The award was announced at a ceremony in London in May. The ‘highly commended’ award was given in respect of CLS’s innovative approach to legal apprenticeship delivery over the past three years.
Jenny Pelling, director of business and apprenticeships at CLS (pictured), said on receiving the award: ‘We are delighted that our work in apprenticeship delivery to the legal sector has been recognised in this way. Our nomination was based on the quality of our service and the high completion rates of apprentices in our client organisations. We are proud to have opened up this new type of career route into the legal sector to over 250 apprentices employed by our clients.’
Meanwhile, CLS welcomed the latest cohort of apprenticeship employees.
Global law firm Clyde & Co is to recruit legal apprentices for its Newcastle office to start in September 2016. This new recruitment initiative builds on the 17 legal apprenticeship schemes in its London, Manchester and Guildford offices , which were initiated during 2014 and 2015.
Global Tier 1 reinsurer SCOR has recruited two apprentices, who will start their Advanced Apprenticeships in Legal Services this summer. The group’s firstever legal apprentices will work under the group’s property and casualty arm for the Paris-London hub claims and legal teams.
In addition, Gowling WLG is to hire two new legal apprentices to work in its pensions team in Birmingham. The new recruits, who start in September 2016, will follow the civil litigation pathway of the Advanced Apprenticeship in Legal Services. CLS will provide training to these firms’ new apprentices.
LALY 2016 finalists: a snapshot
The finalists in this year’s Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) awards include: •
- Martha Spurrier of Doughty Street Chambers, who has just taken over as director of Liberty, for legal aid barrister of the year in recognition of her work for bereaved families, and challenging cuts to legal aid funding;
- in the social and welfare law category, Lou Crisfield, who ran a furniture-making business before becoming a housing caseworker at Miles & Partners; and
- Simon Natas, for criminal defence lawyer of the year, which is sponsored by CILEx, after his nomination was supported by the campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association.
The various LALY award winners will be announced by Baroness Doreen Lawrence at a presentation ceremony in central London on 7 July 2016.