Latest news with #MichaelHolden
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UK's highest court to rule on definition of 'woman' under equality laws
By Sam Tobin and Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom's top court will issue a ruling on Wednesday on the legal definition of a woman under equality laws, a case that could have far-reaching implications for the fractious debate over transgender rights. The Supreme Court will give its judgment on whether a trans woman with a gender recognition certificate (GRC), a formal document which gives legal recognition of someone's new gender, is protected from discrimination as a woman under Britain's Equality Act. Campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) argues those rights should only apply based on a person's biological sex, and is challenging guidance issued by the devolved Scottish government over a 2018 law that was designed to increase the proportion of women on public sector boards. Scottish ministers' guidance on that law stated that a trans woman with a full GRC is legally a woman. The Scottish government argues that the British parliament had intended that this should be the case under equality legislation. Critics argue that, if upheld, such a definition could impact single-sex services for women such as refuges, hospital wards and sports. Transgender campaigners say if the court rules in favour of FWS, it could lead to discrimination against those with gender recognition certificates, especially over employment issues. The FWS case was rejected in the Scottish courts, leading to the Supreme Court appeal, with both sides anticipating that Wednesday's ruling could be complicated. CHALLENGES TO TRUMP ORDERS The landmark British case is the latest example of the wider debate around transgender rights ending up before the courts. In the United States, legal challenges are underway after President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders which include barring transgender people from military service. FWS lawyer Aidan O'Neill told the Supreme Court in November that the argument that the use of woman and man in the equality act referred to 'certificated sex' was "just wrong", and should be understood in the "ordinary, everyday language" sense. Lawyers representing the Scottish government, however, said the guidance was lawful and that a trans woman with a full gender recognition certificate is a woman under the law. Several human rights organisations intervened in the appeal, with Amnesty International backing the Scottish government and lesbian groups such as LGB Alliance supporting FWS. In 2022, Scotland's parliament passed reforms to make it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender, including removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and lowering the minimum age to 16 from 18. But Britain's Westminster government blocked the law and the Scottish government later dropped a challenge to that decision.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Yahoo
Hospital bosses say new evidence casts doubt on UK nurse Letby's baby murder convictions
By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - A public inquiry examining how British nurse Lucy Letby was able to murder babies in her care should be suspended because new evidence casts real doubt on her convictions, the lawyer for the hospital's senior managers said on Tuesday. Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder eight more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital (COCH) in northern England, making her Britain's most prolific serial child killer of modern times. But medical experts have since publicly challenged the evidence on which she was convicted, casting doubt on whether the babies were murdered. Letby's lawyer has applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which examines potential miscarriages of justice, to have her convictions re-examined. "There now appears to be a real likelihood that there are alternative explanations for these deaths and unexplained collapses, namely poor clinical management and care and natural causes," Kate Blackwell, lawyer for the senior managers at the COCH, said in written submissions to the inquiry, set up to determine how the killings went undetected. She asked for the inquiry to be paused until there was clarity as to Letby's involvement in the deaths, as determined by a proper appeals process. "If there is evidence to indicate that there are alternative explanations, then it would be wrong for the inquiry to ignore it because it is inconvenient." On Monday, the inquiry chair Kathryn Thirlwall said at the start of closing submissions she would hear arguments why the inquiry should be paused after the managers, a senior lawmaker and Letby's own lawyer asked for a suspension. Amidst the doubts voiced about Letby's guilt, police are still investigating whether she murdered other babies, and have expanded their inquiry into possible corporate manslaughter at the COCH, which is focused on the hospital's senior leadership, to also consider gross negligence manslaughter by individuals. Blackwell said senior managers accepted they had got things wrong, but hoped the evidence to the inquiry had shown their actions were made in good faith. The lawyer said the managers vociferously denied accusations they "deliberately and knowingly" protected a murderer. She said if Thirlwall did not have the power to pause the inquiry, she should ask the health minister to do so.
