The Crime and Policing Bill is broad in scope and would include measures aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour, knife crime, violence against women and girls, theft, child sexual abuse, other sexual offending, youth radicalisation and more. It would also contain provisions relating to police powers and misconduct investigations.
In January 2025 the House of Lords Constitution Committee published a report on the responsibility of the government (the executive) to oversee the constitution. It concluded that the UK’s constitutional arrangements would benefit from several improved safeguards, such as the appointment of a senior minister to advise on constitutional matters and for advisory bodies to be put on a statutory footing.
Music forms part of the national curriculum up to key stage 3. Recent statistics show increases in GCSE music entries in summer 2025 compared to the previous academic year, but there has also been a drop in A-level entries in the same period. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the quality of music provision in schools and the difficulties faced by children from more deprived areas in accessing music education.
In Focus
Wildfires can harm people and ecosystems and damage property and the environment. Almost all wildfires in the UK are the result of accidental or deliberate acts by humans. Their frequency and severity have been increasing in recent years, with the area burned so far in 2025 already setting records. The National Fire Chiefs Council has called for more resourcing, consistency and coordination to mitigate the effects of future wildfires.
Research Briefing
This bill seeks to implement the government’s commitments to modernise the asylum and immigration systems, establish a border security command and introduce enhanced powers and offences to tackle immigration crime and people smuggling gangs. It has completed its passage in the House of Commons and is scheduled to have its second reading in the House of Lords on 2 June 2025.
In Focus
In September 2024 the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee launched an inquiry into the scaleup challenges facing startup enterprises working with artificial intelligence (AI) and creative technology. In a report published in February 2025, the committee warned the UK risked becoming an incubator economy where UK startups developed innovative products and services before selling out or moving abroad. This briefing summarises the report’s recommendations and the government’s response.
Research Briefing
This proposed law would prevent sentencing guidelines setting out when a pre-sentence report should be obtained from being framed by reference to the personal characteristics of an offender such as race, religion or belief and cultural background.
In Focus
The Community Security Trust, a UK charity that works to protect Jews from antisemitism and other threats, has reported a significant increase in antisemitic incidents on UK university campuses following the start of the current conflict in the Middle East. This briefing provides background information on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and its adoption by UK universities, before concluding with a summary of recent government policy to tackle antisemitism in the higher education sector.
In Focus
The House of Lords is due to discuss NHS staff access to single-sex spaces on 1 May 2025. Following a recent Supreme Court judgment about the meaning of the term ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued an interim update on 25 April 2025 about the implications of this for workplaces and services provided to the public.
In Focus
Between the 1970s and 1990s, the Gaddafi-led Libyan regime supplied the Provisional IRA with weapons, finance and military training. This included shipments of the explosive Semtex, which was used in several bombings where a number of people died and many more were injured. Campaigners have called on the UK government to use Libyan assets frozen in 2011 to compensate victims. However, successive governments, including the current Labour government, have declined to do so, arguing it would break international law.
In Focus
On 8 May 2025, the country will mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the second world war in Europe. Many of the commemorations will take place in cemeteries where those who died during the conflict are remembered. This briefing focuses on the organisation behind these cemeteries, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It looks at how the commission developed and recent work on one of its key principles: equality in death.
Research Briefing
The Hares (Closed Season) Bill [HL] would create a closed season during which it would be an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure or take any hare between 1 February to 30 September each year. It would also repeal the Hares Preservation Act 1892.
In Focus
In November 2024, the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee published a report examining the future of the news sector in the UK. While acknowledging the sector’s strengths, it expressed concerns about declining trust and revenue, threats to investigative reporting and the influence of artificial intelligence (AI). It made several recommendations to the government and others, including dedicating resources to address the challenges of AI and developing a media literacy strategy.
In Focus
The UK co-founded and is a member of the Media Freedom Coalition, which advocates for media freedom, the safety of journalists, and holding those who harm journalists to account. More than 50 journalists have been killed every year since 2019, often with impunity. They can also be subject to detention and legal intimidation. The previous government worked with the UN and other multilateral organisations to promote media freedom, and the current government has said it will protect independent journalism.
In Focus
In October 2024, a House of Lords committee published a post-legislative review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The committee argued that the legislation was no longer world-leading. It suggested developments worldwide had led to the UK falling behind internationally and that recent immigration legislation had limited the act’s support infrastructure for victims. It called on government policy to recognise the difference between migrants coming to the UK willingly and victims of trafficking.
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