This paper considers the opportunities for legal redress under the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRAâ€) where police fail to carry out their investigative responsibilities. The main focus is on the claims available to victims of serious crimes against the person. However , I also examine briefly the position of those accused of crimes who experience delay in their exoneration as a result of incompetent investigation.
In the last 20 years or so Parliament has provided a rash of purportedly civil remedies to address various types of nuisance or anti-social behaviour. This began with housing ASB injunctions under the Housing Act 1996 which were significantly extended by the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 , the ASBO of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which whilst originally a stand alone civil remedy became most used after sentencing from criminal offences that constituted such behaviour , to follow have been gang related violence (and now drug dealing) injunctions and there have been or are a number of others such as football banning orders.
This presentation looks at the core duties to investigate , identify , and protect; the source of those duties; and their application in situations where the police and the Home Office are most likely to come into contact with victims – enforcement action , immigration crime raids , police stations , prisons , detention centres , screening , immigration procedures , and visa posts.
Mid-Staffordshire , Morecambe Bay , Winterbourne View , Southern Health. Sadly the NHS is far from immune from preventable deaths , individual and systemic abuse , and deficient investigations into its own failings. The need for effective systems that will prevent death and serious harm , protective duties that require staff to take operational measures to protect those in their care , and robust , searching investigations into deaths and incidents of mistreatment are needed in healthcare and clinical settings now more than ever.
The “duty†on the State to conduct an investigation into events of significant public concern or interest is not in fact a single duty , but incorporates some duties , and a wide range of powers , derived from common law , statutory and international law sources , which can often overlap in the same case. This is one of two papers by Henrietta Hill QC and Adam Straw presented as part of PLP’s ‘By Public Demand: Inquiries , Investigations and the Law confercne in April 2016.
Evidence of the Public Law Project to the Labour Review of Legal Aid.We welcome the opportunity to provide written evidence to the Bach Commission. The evidence sets out our direct experience of the impact of the LASPO cuts , and the conclusions that we are able to draw from that experience.
Sir Henry Brooke’s opening address to our Public Law for Private Law Practitioners conference , 4 March 2014. The address looks at how Public Law has evolved and diversified away from private law in recent decades.
The current Government was elected on a promise to cut £12 billion from the social security budget. Detailed plans were announced post-election in the July 2015 Summer Budget and legislation has been published in the form of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill (‘the Bill’). This paper considers whether proposals , as currently drafted , are lawful and specifically whether current measures in the Bill comply with domestic and international law.
These are the notes to a seminar on the role of the Ombudsman , looking particularly at the PHSO.
…it is opportune to consider the alternative protections for fundamental human rights which are available and to which lawyers should properly have regard in pleading cases before the courts of England , Wales , Scotland and the North of Ireland. We consider two important parallel sources of fundamental rights protection , namely (I) the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
of the European Union and (II) the common law.
This is a panel debate from our 2015 annual conference on 5th October. Panelists Hugh Tomlinson (Chair) David Anderson QC , Michael Drury CMG , Eric King & Alice Ross.