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Law digests: 7 June 2024

07 June 2024
Issue: 8074 / Categories: Case law , In Court , Law digest
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Police powers

R (on the application of ­National Council for Civil Liberties) v ­Secretary of State for the Home Department (Public Law Project ­intervening) [2024] EWHC 1181 (­Admin), [2024] All ER (D) 89 (May)

The Administrative Court, in allowing the claimant’s judicial review claim in part, held that the Public Order Act 1986 (Serious Disruption to the Life of the Community) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/655), which strengthened police powers concerning protests, were unlawful. Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 (POA 1986) empowered the police to impose conditions on public processions and assemblies if an officer reasonably believed that there would be ‘serious disruption to the life of the community’. The government laid two amendments to the Public Order Bill, which sought to expand the definition of ‘serious disruption’ in POA 1986 to include anything which was ‘more than minor’. However, the House of Lords had rejected one of the amendments. Before the Public Order Act 2023 (POA 2023) had received Royal Assent, the government had then exercised the ‘Henry VIII power’ to amend legislation by secondary

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

mfg Solicitors—Brian Hession

Birmingham commercial property team bolstered by partner hire

STEP—Sara Morgan

STEP—Sara Morgan

Fieldfisher director re-elected as deputy chair of England Wales committee

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Osborne Clarke—Andrew Eaton

Restructuring and insolvency expert joins as partner

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
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