United Kingdom

Proposed legislation giving undercover police and MI5 agents explicit permission to commit criminal offences has passed its third reading in the House of Commons by a huge margin. The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) (Criminal Conduct) Bill was approved by 313-98 after the defeat of a number

The UK's pubs regulator has issued its first fine, of £2 million, against Edinburgh-headquartered Star Pubs & Bars. The Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) made the fine after it found serious and repeated breached of the code over three years.

The UK government is being sued over its failure to disclose details of over £3 billion worth of Covid-19 contracts that it has awarded to private companies. Three MPs and the Good Law Project are seeking judicial review of the government's failure to disclose the information, arguing it is br

The House of Lords Constitution Committee is undertaking an inquiry into the constitutional issues raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is exploring the impact of the pandemic on:  Calls for written evidence on the courts and Parliament strands of the inquiry have closed, and the committee is in

A former UK Supreme Court president has warned that when a society deprives people of the right to challenge the government in court "you are in a dictatorship; you are in a tyranny". In a discussion on the Internal Market Bill, Lord Neuberger, David Neuberger, a former president of the Supreme

Proposed legislation giving undercover police and MI5 agents explicit permission to commit criminal offences goes "too far" and should be watered down, a former head of the English prosecution service has said. Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, who served as director of public prosecutions from 2003 t

President of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Reed, has said he hopes an ethnic minority justice will be appointed to the UK's highest court before he retires in six years' time. He said the lack of diversity on the Supreme Court bench was a situation "which cannot be allowed to become shameful".

Lord Hodge has been appointed a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal. The jurisdiction's chief executive, Carrie Lam, accepted the recommendation to appoint Lord Hodge, Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court, as a non-permanent judge from another common law jurisdiction.

The UK Supreme Court will consider next month whether Shamima Begum should be allowed to enter the UK to take part in her appeal over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship.

Undercover police and MI5 agents will be given explicit permission in law to commit criminal offences under new legislation introduced by the UK government. The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Bill has been introduced to provide a "clear and consistent statutory basis for a limited number o

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has apologised and ordered an independent investigation after an investigative journalism outlet reporting on the war in Yemen alleged that it had been "blacklisted". Declassified UK instructed law firm Leigh Day after the ministry's press office refused to provide a co

A litigation executive at DAC Beachcroft has been barred from the profession after naming a client on a Facebook post. A decision notice published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said that Keith Howell also spent excessive time dealing with clients' matters and recording billable t

Amal Clooney has resigned as the government's envoy on media freedom over suggestions the UK government intends to break parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. She said in a letter to foreign secretary Dominic Rabb that she was "dismayed to learn that the government intends to pass legislati

Big Four audit firm Deloitte has been slapped with a record £15 million fine by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in connection with failures in its audit of Autonomy. The watchdog yesterday announced sanctions against the firm and former partners Richard Knights and Nigel Mercer foll

The Advocate General for Scotland, Lord Keen of Elie QC, has resigned following the UK government’s U-turn on the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit deal. The controversial UK Internal Market Bill allows ministers to “disapply” rules agreed over the goods that cross between Britai