In Brief

CABINET UNMASKED

Minutes of cabinet meetings at which the attorney general’s opinion on the legality of an Iraq invasion was discussed will be made public. The Cabinet Office has refused to release the documents, citing qualified exemptions relating to policy formulation and ministerial communications. However, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says the exemptions, contained in s 35 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI 2000) are qualified, and subject to a public interest test. A decision notice from the ICO says: “As s 35 is a qualified exemption, a blanket approach cannot be taken to justify the withholding of all information to which the exemption is engaged.”

TERROR CONTROLS

MPs are calling for changes to the control orders legislation, as Gordon Brown prepares to renew the regime. The joint select committee on human rights argues no-one should be subject to a control order indefinitely and that daily curfews should not exceed 12 hours. It proposes an amendment to the Counter-Terrorism Bill to bring the issue before Parliament. The committee found that seven of the current 15 terror suspects had been on control orders for more than two years, and two were thought to have been detained without trial before that. Committee chair, Andrew Dismore MP, says: “We do not want to create Guantanamo martyrs on British soil.”

CPS PROSECUTIONS

Prosecutions for racist offences for 2006–2007 rose compared to the previous year, while prosecutions fell for religiously aggravated offences, according to the Crown Prosecution Service’s Racist and Religious Incident Monitoring report. Prosecutions for racially aggravated offences rose by 23% with 9,145 defendants, of which the CPS prosecuted 84.1%. The CPS prosecuted 22 people for religiously aggravated offences—81.5% of those reported. In the 23 cases where the religion was known, 17 victims were Muslim, three Christian, two Jewish and one Sikh.

MINER COMPENSATION

Former miners have had to wait for more than 10 years for compensation, a new Public Accounts Committee report says. More than 100,000 are still awaiting payment, and some have died, while solicitors have earned more than £1.3bn handling the claims, the report says. In more than two-thirds of cases, the administration costs exceeded the amount of compensation. The committee’s chair, Edward Leigh MP, accuses the government of “seriously mismanaging” the schemes. The government estimated 218,000 claims and £614m in compensation, but there were actually about 762,000 claims, £4.1bn in compensation and £2.3bn in administration.

SCAM BAN

Draft regulations have been laid in Parliament to protect consumers from aggressive and other unfair sales practices. If approved in debate, the Consumer Protection Regulations (CPRs) will come into force on 26 May 2008. The regulations introduce an outright ban on certain unfair sales practices, including bogus closing-down sales, prize draw scams and aggressive doorstep selling. They also establish a catch-all duty not to trade unfairly. Consumer affairs minister Gareth Thomas said: “It delivers better protections for consumers, cuts red tape and... will be easier to interpret and enforce.”

IVF TREATMENT

A woman undergoing advanced in vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) is protected against sexual discrimination, the European Court of Justice says. In Mayr v Bäckerei und Konditorei Gerhard Flöckner OHG, an Austrian waitress, M, was dismissed while undergoing advanced IVF. M’s ova had been fertilised but, at the time of her dismissal, her ova had not been transferred back into her uterus. The court said M was not entitled to protection under Art 10 of the EC Pregnant Workers Directive 92/85/EEC as IVF treatment could last for an indefinite period. However, M was entitled to equal treatment under Art 2(1) of the EC Equal Treatment Directive 76/207/EEC, since IVF treatment directly affects women.