Latest news with #LawCommission
Telegraph
6 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Met chief backs sharing suspects' ethnicity
Police should routinely release information on the ethnicity of suspects even if it 'emboldens' racists, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has suggested. Sir Mark Rowley said police forces had to be 'realistic' and put more personal details about suspects in public earlier given the amount of 'half truths' often already widely available on social media. His comments follow the decision by Merseyside Police to reveal that it was a 53-year-old white British man who had been arrested for driving into a crowd of football supporters in Liverpool within hours of the incident on Bank Holiday Monday. Sir Mark acknowledged criticism of Merseyside Police's decision to reveal the Liverpool driver's ethnicity, but said that was now best practice moving forward. He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: 'We're in such an age of such citizen journalism, people have screenshots, phones, some content will be all over social media very, very quickly. 'People will be making guesses and inferences – I think in that world putting more facts out is the only way to deal with it. 'And if those facts generate embolden racists in some cases then we need to confront those individuals. 'I think trying to avoid truths when half truth is in the public domain is going to be quite difficult going forward.' The Law Commission has been asked by Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, to fast-track a review of contempt of court rules which restrict the information that police can put out on the basis that it could prejudice a fair trial of a suspect. The commission, which advises ministers on new laws, will make proposals in autumn on what information law enforcement agencies should be able to publish about the suspects in attacks such as the murder of three young girls by Axel Rudakubana in Southport last summer. The new rules follow concerns by three of the main policing bodies that the current rules on contempt of court risk leaving an information vacuum that could be filled by 'unchecked misinformation and disinformation'. The riots were partly blamed on false claims circulating on social media that the Southport attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK on a small boat across the Channel. Other false rumours suggested the killer had been on an MI6 watchlist. The only information released by Merseyside Police last summer was that the suspect was a 17-year-old from Banks, in Lancashire, who was originally from Cardiff. Two hours later, the force amended it to 'born in Cardiff'. But police did not divulge family background details, including that the attacker's parents were Christians who had come to the UK from Rwanda. The attacker was not named because he was one week shy of his 18th birthday. Police said the motive was 'unclear' but that the incident was 'not being treated as terror-related'. The decision by Merseyside Police to disclose the ethnicity and citizenship of the driver on Monday has been praised although some former officers have questioned whether the same principle would be applied if the suspect was from an ethnic minority. Sir Mark said: 'I think as we go forward in the future, we would always want to be more transparent in terms of the data we release. Sometimes the nature of the investigation, the nature of the case, makes that difficult. But in principle, of course, transparency is good.' The commission said the murders and riots raised two questions that it would seek to answer. The first was 'the extent to which misinformation and disinformation can be countered by a public authority without risking liability for contempt of court'. The second was 'whether there are circumstances that would justify the publication of information that would otherwise come within scope of contempt of court liability'. Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has suggested it would not be prejudicial for police to provide factual information about an individual, such as name, nationality and age. However, the Law Commission said that while accepting that confirming a person's country of birth would rarely cause prejudice, nationality might turn out to be an issue at a future trial. 'Similarly, the more commonplace the publication of certain categories of information, the more conspicuous would be its absence in a particular case,' it added.
Business Mayor
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Mayor
In depth: Law Society private client conference
One topic dominated this year's private client conference at Chancery Lane – the Law Commission's long-awaited report on wills reform, which was published a few days earlier. The report has been long in the making, as law commissioner Professor Nick Hopkins (pictured) explained during the day's final session. The commission was asked in 2015 to do a scoping report. Following a consultation, the government asked it to pause work and concentrate on weddings. Wills was picked up again post-Covid with a supplementary consultation paper in 2023. 'At the risk of making virtue out of vice, that pause has ultimately been beneficial because attitudes to electronic wills and marriage revoking a will changed in that period of time,' Hopkins said. The commissioner talked through some of the report's key recommendations. Electronic wills should be permitted. The rule that marriage revokes a will should be abolished. The age for making a will should be lowered from 18 to 16. Only the Mental Capacity Act test should apply to the question of testamentary capacity. The courts should be allowed to deem a will valid where the formality requirements have not been fully met but the deceased's intentions are clear. The commission's draft Wills Bill repeals the 1837 act. Most private client practitioners agree that the 1837 act should be replaced with new legislation. However, Stephen Lawson, chair of the Law Society's wills and equity committee, predicted many more court battles if, per the commission's recommendations, judges are empowered to infer undue influence. 'It is one of the most common allegations clients make but one of the most difficult to prove,' he told the conference. On marriage no longer revoking a will, 'you have got to consider the role of cohabitees', Lawson noted. The conference covered other important ground. With probate and estate administration generating the third-highest volume of reports to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and some of the largest and most frequent payments from the compensation fund, the regulator shared examples of best and poor practice during its most recent thematic review. 'We're not just called on to be advisers about the law anymore. There is a huge element of counselling, ethics and morality that pervades the decisions our clients want to make. They do not care about the legals' James Lister, Stevens & Bolton Shortcomings in law firm communications were a big driver of client dissatisfaction, SRA regulatory managers Mel Lothbrok and Siobhan Fennell said. The regulator was surprised to find significant variations in written information given to clients about the estate administration process, given that many people will know little about it. Some firms were providing written information too late in the day, while some regularly exceeded cost estimates without warning clients. Lothbrok and Fennell said clients should receive the best possible information at the outset and firms should have efficient processes for managing costs, with clients being updated right through to the end of the retainer. The regulator is also concerned about compliance with accounts rules. The conference heard that one firm obtained a qualified accountant's report but failed to submit it to the SRA. Another firm did not obtain one for several years. A tip for firms: consider asking your accountant for feedback on the strength of your financial controls to address issues and prevent problems down the line. Read More Confiscation hearing for jailed solicitor adjourned The conference also covered key changes to personal taxation, the complexities of farming families, understanding the Official Solicitor's role in Court of Protection applications, mental capacity assessments and revoking deputyships, and AI. The key takeaway from a session on 'advising modern families' was undoubtedly the fact that in surrogacy, the mother or father are not the legal parents of their child in the jurisdiction of England and Wales if they do not have a parental order. Gender has become another important consideration, the conference heard. James Lister, head of private wealth disputes at Stevens & Bolton, said solicitors are used to drafting and advising on will documents that define beneficiaries by reference to their gender. But 'when you're using protected characteristics to define your beneficiaries, you trespass into dangerous territory'. Lister added: 'We're not just called on to be advisers about the law anymore. There is a huge element of counselling, ethics and morality that pervades the decisions our clients want to make. They do not care about the legals.' If clients are tied to a set of values they do not ascribe to, 'we're creating a large set of problems'. Electronic wills may not arrive soon – the government's full response is expected within 12 months – but as the conference showed, private client specialists have plenty of other issues to focus on in the meantime.
Globe and Mail
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Letters to the editor, May 25: ‘If parking is removed, where will cars be parked?'
Re 'Good government?' (Letters, May 18): A letter writer refers to 'geographical polarization that occurs when parties can afford to ignore entire regions' – exactly why Canada should have proportional representation. Alberta Liberal voters cast 27.9 per cent of the province's votes, so should have elected 10 MPs, not just two. Saskatchewan elected only one Liberal MP on 26.6 per cent of that province's votes, when it should have elected four Liberal MPs. Use the mixed-member system designed by the Law Commission of Canada. There are two votes: the first for a local MP, the second for a regional MP, then topping up the numbers so the total is proportional and all MPs have faced the voters. Wilfred Day Port Hope, Ont. The problems pointed out with our first-past-the-post voting system are glaring and cannot be ignored. But there are aspects of our system that citizens might wish to preserve, and that can be done by designing a proportional system accordingly. The world is replete with highly democratic models of proportional representation that rank at the top end as functioning democracies. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's ratings for 2024, the top 10 democracies in the world all have highly proportional systems. Of the top 30 democracies, all but a handful have some element of proportionality built into the system. Canada is in 14th place, but could do much better with a proportional system in which every vote counts to elect a representative or party of one's choice. Réal Lavergne Ottawa Re 'Canada needs a 'no-regrets' list of national projects to drive growth, report argues' (Report on Business, May 15): After abolishing consumer carbon pricing, Mark Carney could burnish his environmental credentials by funding a national program of residential energy retrofits. Insulation improvements, window upgrades, electric service enhancement and heat pump installations would go a long way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from residential homes. A national residential energy retrofit program would stimulate provincial economies from coast to coast to coast. The retrofits would reduce the operating costs of homes, thereby making homeownership more affordable. They would make homes more comfortable, too. Derek Wilson Port Moody, B.C. Re 'What Doug Ford could learn from Paris, the city where car was once king' (May 17): Comparing biking in Paris to biking in Toronto seems as helpful as comparing the cities' gothic architecture. Paris averages far fewer days a year with subzero temperatures or snow than Toronto. Toronto is also huge compared to Paris: 630 square kilometres versus 105 square kilometres. The weather and distances are not comparable. Bike lanes will not help get my parents to doctor's appointments in North York, my son to hockey games in Scarborough or me to client meetings in Mississauga. Keep some lanes in the downtown core, but north of Bloor Street, all they seem to do is help reckless e-bike riders deliver burgers in under 10 minutes. The solution to Toronto's gridlock is not bike lanes. I believe it is better transit. Given our poor ability to build infrastructure, if we want to nudge people onto bikes or transit, let's implement congestion taxes to access the downtown core. Dominic Atkinson Toronto I found that the changes in Paris, which I recently visited along with Amsterdam, truly are victories for the city. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people, young and old (meaning those closer to my vintage), populated the streets on foot and by bike. And the businesses on those streets are flourishing. A livable city is what attracts talent and investment. For a Premier who is all about Ontario being back in business, not seizing the opportunity to expand, rather than contract, bike- and pedestrian-friendly roadways confounds me. After all, it is not the 1950s any more. Jack Wilson Ottawa Re 'Speed up the bus by ending the free ride of street parkers' (Editorial, May 16): The issue for me is not about the free ride for street parkers. Toronto is growing so, yes, we need more and better public transit. Better bus service on major arterials is essential. Roads such as Bathurst and Dufferin and those in neighbourhoods such as mine, Deer Park, were built many years ago, when car ownership was low and housing was built without parking spaces. So when more cars came, we used our streets for parking. Later some of us were able to add front-yard parking. But for many, this is not an option. If parking is removed, where will cars be parked? No consideration seems to have been given to this. In Manhattan, many apartment dwellers park their cars in industrial areas and further away from New York's city centre. Where would Bathurst and Dufferin residents park their cars? Has this been considered? Cathie Macdonald Toronto Re 'Sauna culture wins Canadian converts as mobile businesses bring the heat to them' (May 17): 'Smoke wafts from a black wooden hut …' Indeed, the smoke wafts and pollutes our already overburdened and polluted air. In my neighbourhood, the combination of wood-fired saunas, wood stoves, pizza ovens and fire pits has left many of us breathless. The air was so full of smoke this winter, we wore N95 masks to shovel the snow. In urban centres in Finland, where saunas are common, infrared or electrically heated huts are used. The fine particulate matter that my neighbours thoughtlessly force us to breathe is killing us. We should educate ourselves on the dangers of wood smoke. Burning trees is not environmentally forward. It's not only harmful to people, especially children and pregnant women, it also harms wildlife and stunts the growth of flora and fauna. Saunas can be enjoyed without toxifying the air. We all have the right to breathe clean air. Sue Savor Kitchener, Ont. Re 'The one diet you won't crash out on: a steady dose of joy' (Opinion, May 17): This gives readers a convincing reminder to take delight by sharing sumptuous little pleasures in daily life, even when it is so hard to find time within the structures of modern living. There is now so much suffering in our world, which cannot be avoided, but which can be alleviated by finding joy. The message is timely and much needed to stay healthy and resilient for the long, collective fight for a better world. Hiedi Vamvalis London, Ont. Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Keep letters to 150 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Predatory marriages could be banned after pensioners ‘groomed' for inheritance payouts
Ministers are considering reforming marriage rules to stop elderly people from being preyed on and their families disinherited. So-called 'predatory marriages' – which lawyers claim are on the rise – see the elderly and vulnerable groomed into marriages they may not properly understand. Current rules mean that pre-existing wills are invalidated when a person marries, meaning that spouses, who can inherit without paying any death duties, stand to get everything under intestacy laws. But a major report from the Law Commission, published last week, recommended that wills should no longer be discarded when a person marries. In a letter to Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, and Fabian Hamilton, a Labour MP, raised the case of Joan Blass, a 91-year-old woman suffering from dementia who married a younger man in a 'secret' wedding. She was widowed in 2008 but towards the end of 2011 struck up a conversation with the man, who was standing at the end of her garden. Within a month, he had moved into her spare bedroom. The marriage – made without the knowledge of Ms Blass's family – meant that when she died in 2016, she was buried in an unmarked grave, against her wishes, and 'stripped of all her assets and money'. Her husband claimed she did have the capacity to marry him and that it was a 'loving and caring' relationship, the i newspaper reported. Mr Hamilton wrote on X: 'The Wills Act hasn't been updated since 1837. Marriage should never revoke a previous will. 'The Law Commission has put forward decisive recommendations. I have written to the justice minister calling on the Government to act on them.' The Labour MP put forward a Private Members' Bill in 2018 proposing a change in the law, which was supported by MPs including Rachel Reeves and Sir Ed Davey. Mr Hamilton said he had been contacted by several families who had experienced 'predatory marriages', demonstrating the scale of the issue. Daniel Edwards, a partner at law firm Browne Jacobson, said many people were unaware of the rule, and that it 'can seem a little hard to justify, given changes in society since the rule came about.' Mr Edwards added: 'It is also one that can be open to abuse; in cases of 'predatory marriage' a will – that perhaps leaves everything to the testator's children – would in all likelihood be revoked by a marriage. 'While Law Commission reports can sometimes take years to be considered and debated in Parliament, the fact we have already seen the Government's response suggests there is motivation and intention to bring forward changes in the not-too-distant future.' Ms Sackman said in response to the recommendations: 'Marriage should no longer automatically revoke a will – this recommendation is designed to address the problem of 'predatory marriages' where vulnerable people are befriended, and the effect of the marriage is to disinherit families and others from any will they have made.' The Law Commission began looking into wills in 2016, before pausing the research in 2019 to focus on marriages at the Government's request. It published the results of two public consultations and draft legislation earlier this month. Other recommendations from the review included allowing children to make wills, making electronic wills valid and the recognition of more informal wills. The commission also proposed abolishing rules which stop second spouses, stepchildren and divorced partners from challenging mutual wills under the Inheritance Act 1975. Ms Sackman added: 'The reforms proposed by the Law Commission are significant and wide-ranging. They deserve detailed consideration. 'The Government recognises that the current law is outdated, and we must embrace change, but the guiding principle in doing so will be to ensure that reform does not compromise existing freedoms or protecting the elderly and vulnerable in society from undue influence.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Predatory marriages could be banned after pensioners ‘groomed' for inheritance payouts
Ministers are considering reforming marriage rules to stop elderly people from being preyed on and their families disinherited. So-called 'predatory marriages' – which lawyers claim are on the rise – see the elderly and vulnerable groomed into marriages they may not properly understand. Current rules mean that pre-existing wills are invalidated when a person marries, meaning that spouses, who can inherit without paying any death duties, stand to get everything under intestacy laws. But a major report from the Law Commission, published last week, recommended that wills should no longer be discarded when a person marries. In a letter to Sarah Sackman, a justice minister, and Fabian Hamilton, a Labour MP, raised the case of Joan Blass, a 91-year-old woman suffering from dementia who married a younger man in a 'secret' wedding. She was widowed in 2008 but towards the end of 2011 struck up a conversation with the man, who was standing at the end of her garden. Within a month, he had moved into her spare bedroom. The marriage – made without the knowledge of Ms Blass's family – meant that when she died in 2016, she was buried in an unmarked grave, against her wishes, and 'stripped of all her assets and money'. Her husband claimed she did have the capacity to marry him and that it was a 'loving and caring' relationship, the i newspaper reported. Mr Hamilton wrote on X: 'The Wills Act hasn't been updated since 1837. Marriage should never revoke a previous will. 'The Law Commission has put forward decisive recommendations. I have written to the justice minister calling on the Government to act on them.' Current rules 'hard to justify' The Labour MP put forward a Private Members' Bill in 2018 proposing a change in the law, which was supported by MPs including Rachel Reeves and Sir Ed Davey. Mr Hamilton said he had been contacted by several families who had experienced 'predatory marriages', demonstrating the scale of the issue. Daniel Edwards, a partner at law firm Browne Jacobson, said many people were unaware of the rule, and that it 'can seem a little hard to justify, given changes in society since the rule came about.' Mr Edwards added: 'It is also one that can be open to abuse; in cases of 'predatory marriage' a will – that perhaps leaves everything to the testator's children – would in all likelihood be revoked by a marriage. 'While Law Commission reports can sometimes take years to be considered and debated in Parliament, the fact we have already seen the Government's response suggests there is motivation and intention to bring forward changes in the not-too-distant future.' Government 'recognises current law is outdated' Ms Sackman said in response to the recommendations: 'Marriage should no longer automatically revoke a will – this recommendation is designed to address the problem of 'predatory marriages' where vulnerable people are befriended, and the effect of the marriage is to disinherit families and others from any will they have made.' The Law Commission began looking into wills in 2016, before pausing the research in 2019 to focus on marriages at the Government's request. It published the results of two public consultations and draft legislation earlier this month. Other recommendations from the review included allowing children to make wills, making electronic wills valid and the recognition of more informal wills. The commission also proposed abolishing rules which stop second spouses, stepchildren and divorced partners from challenging mutual wills under the Inheritance Act 1975. Ms Sackman added: 'The reforms proposed by the Law Commission are significant and wide-ranging. They deserve detailed consideration. 'The Government recognises that the current law is outdated, and we must embrace change, but the guiding principle in doing so will be to ensure that reform does not compromise existing freedoms or protecting the elderly and vulnerable in society from undue influence.'
