The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 provides the UK Supreme Court and the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland with the power to depart from retained EU case law after the end of the transition period. Draft regulations, introduced by the Government in October 2020, seek to extend this power to the Court of Appeal and other equivalent courts and tribunals. This article looks at the detail of the regulations and recent scrutiny that has taken place.
Documents to download
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Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages (130 KB, PDF)
The Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill is a House of Commons private member’s bill introduced by John Glen (Conservative MP for Salisbury) and is sponsored in the House of Lords by Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Conservative). The Bill has completed all stages in the House of Commons and is scheduled to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 6 April 2017.
Provisions
The Bill would repeal sections 146(4) and 147(3) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which no longer have legal effect but remain in statute. These provisions originally allowed for the dismissal of a member of the crew of a merchant ship on the grounds of homosexual acts. Such a dismissal would now be illegal under subsequent legislation, including the Equality Act 2010.
Reasons for Introducing the Bill
In the Explanatory Notes that it produced for the Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill on behalf of the Bill’s sponsor, the Government outlined the following reasons why it believed repealing sections 146(4) and 147(3) of the 1994 Act was necessary: while these sections had no legal effect, they might be still be misinterpreted; they were no longer compatible with current values; and their removal would tidy up the statute book.
Related Links
Documents to download
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Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages (130 KB, PDF)
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The House of Lords is due to consider two related statutory instruments on 26 November 2020. Along with a third order, the instruments amend orders from 2019 which made provision for ‘Operation Brock’. This is a planned system to manage heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) traffic in Kent when there are delays in exporting goods from Great Britain (GB) to the EU after the transition period. This article examines what the 2020 orders do and why they are being made.
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‘Hate crime’ is used to describe a range of criminal behaviour that a victim or other person perceives to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity. These aspects of a person’s identity are referred to as ‘protected characteristics’. There have been recent calls to extend the protected characteristics to cover sex and gender. This would see misogyny become a hate crime.
