This House of Lords Library Briefing provides information on some of the proposed changes to probation services identified the Government’s recent consultation, 'Strengthening Probation, Building Confidence'.
Probation Services: Reforms and Proposed Future Changes (199 KB , PDF)
The probation services framework in England and Wales has been subject to significant reforms in recent years. This briefing considers structural changes introduced by the Coalition Government before summarising further changes to the system proposed by the current Government in its recent consultation, Strengthening Probation, Building Confidence, published in July 2018. The Government has stated it will announce fuller details of forthcoming changes in early 2019.
Probation Services: Reforms and Proposed Future Changes (199 KB , PDF)
British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since 2016. The UK Government has called her detention arbitrary and has lobbied the Iranian Government for her release. Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and her MP, Tulip Siddiq, have called on the Government to do more to secure her freedom.
‘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.
Several countries and parliaments have accused China of committing genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The UK Government maintains that only a competent court can make this determination. However, the Times reported that the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Elizabeth Truss, had previously accused China of committing genocide. The House of Lords is due to take note of these reported remarks on 25 November 2021.
