United Kingdom

More than 100 survivors of the Grenfell tower fire are taking legal action in the US against companies they believe are to blame for the disaster, the BBC reports. The lawsuit is targeting cladding maker Arconic, as well as insulation maker Celotex and Whirlpool, a fridge supplier.

The laws around surrogacy in Britain are outdated and should be improved to better support the child, surrogates and intended parents, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission have announced. Surrogacy is where a woman bears a child on behalf of someone else or a coupl

Everyone in the UK will have the legal right to request a decent and affordable broadband connection from March next year, Ofcom has confirmed. The communications regulator is implementing the UK Government's "universal broadband service", a safety net that will give eligible homes and businesses a

A former UK Supreme Court judge has criticised the "mission creep" of the European Convention on Human Rights and suggested that the UK could be forced to withdraw from the nearly 70-year-old convention. Lord Sumption, 70, said that "intensely political questions" had been reclassified by the ECHR a

The immigration detention centre at Heathrow Airport has come under fire from an independent watchdog for holding people for "inhumane" periods. A new report from the centre's Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) notes that some detainees have been held for up to four-and-a-half years before being rel

A coalition of more than 50 civil rights groups, security experts and tech companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft have signed an open letter calling on GCHQ to abandon proposals for eavesdropping on encrypted conversations. Under the so-called "ghost protocol", the providers of end-to-end e

A decision not to include Sikhs among ethnic groups in the 2021 census could face a legal challenge. Lawyers for the Sikh Federation have written to ministers warning them that it would be unlawful not to include a Sikh ethnicity tickbox on the form, as the Office of National Statistics (ONS) recomm

The number of cybercrime prosecutions in the UK represents less than one per cent of reported incidents, despite their increase in the past year. The latest data show there were 17,900 reported cases of computer hacking in 2018, up 74 per cent from 13,200 in 2017. The most commonly reported types we

Home Office rules on determining if asylum seekers are younger than 18 are unlawful, senior judges have ruled. The Court of Appeal has supported a claim made by an Eritrean man, who sought asylum in 2014, The Times reports.

Lord Neuberger has warned that further cuts in the justice system will lead to a “breakdown of the rule of law”, The Times reports. The former president of the UK Supreme Court said the rule of law was “absolutely fundamental” but had been taken for granted in the UK followin

A proliferation of new laws and judicial power has diminished people's ability to make their own decisions, according to a former Supreme Court justice, The Times reports. Jonathan Sumption QC, Lord Sumption, 70, retired from the bench in December last year. He said that the case of Charlie Gard ind

The UK Government is appointing an international ambassador for the promotion of human rights. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has appointed Rita French, formerly his principal private secretary, to the role.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been maintaining a secret policy allowing ministers to approve actions which could lead to torture, The Times reports. This policy, which was revealed through freedom of information requests by The Rendition Project, suggests ministers can approve action c

Celtic FC is to face a compensation claim for millions of pounds if it fails to accept responsibility for paedophiles who preyed on young players, a lawyer has said. Patrick McGuire, a partner at Thompsons Solicitors, made the warning after Jim McCafferty, 73, a former Celtic Boys Club coach, w

British troops and veterans are to be given stronger legal protection against prosecution, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt will announce. Under the proposals, they would be protected from investigation over their actions on foreign battlefields after 10 years, except in "exceptional circumstances".