25 April 2025 by Jennifer Zhou
In UK News:
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘sex’ refer to biological sex in the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010). The appeal in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 concerned revised statutory guidance to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. The revised guidance defines ‘woman’ as including a person with a Gender Recognition Certificate. These Certificates are issued under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA 2004) and change the recipient’s gender ‘for all purposes’ (section 9(1)); however, the GRA 2004 also provides that s9(1) can be disapplied by other legislation. This was termed a ‘carve out’ power in the Supreme Court’s judgment.
The Supreme Court held that the carve out applies to the EA 2010. In interpreting EA 2010, the Court looked to which definition of sex would make its provisions coherent and workable. A certificated-sex approach would create two sub-groups within the transgender community: those with a GRC would be entitled to greater rights than those without. The Court saw ‘no good reason’ why Parliament would intend this inequality of status. The Court also anticipated that parties seeking to fulfil their bifurcated duties under the EA 2010 would also face practical difficulties: there is no obvious outward difference between trans people with and without a GRC, and duty-bearers cannot ask whether a GRC has been obtained because it is confidential information.
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14 April 2025 by Georgia Bowen
In UK News
Asylum seekers held at the Manston holding facility in Kent are bringing legal action against the government for unlawful detention and other rights violations. The claims stem from a period between June and November 2022 in which the centre meant for a maximum of 1,600 people was holding more than 3,000 in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions. Described as a ‘humanitarian crisis on British soil’ by one union official as well as a solicitor for the claimants, detainees suffered outbreaks of infectious disease such as norovirus, scabies and even diphtheria, from which one man died. The conditions left the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration ‘speechless’. The claimants include a Syrian woman who, having arrived at the centre with her husband and five young children, suffered a miscarriage while unable to access medical care at the centre. Another is a 19-year-old Sudanese victim of trafficking and torture. He was left regularly hungry and only allowed one shower during his 33 day detention, during which no attention was paid to his particular vulnerabilities. A 17-year old Kurdish teenager from Iraq was detained for 12 days, with his age recorded as five years older despite his protestations, also joins the action. The government has faced many legal challenges of a similar nature, such as the recent High Court ruling that three vulnerable asylum seekers were unlawfully housed at former RAF base Wethersfield.
The UK Supreme Court ruled last week on the scope of a local authority’s duty to secure temporary accommodation for qualifying homeless people in Scotland. Giving the court’s unanimous judgment, Lady Simler distinguished between the local authority’s duties relating to interim as opposed to permanent housing. These duties are respectively imposed by section 29 and section 31 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987. At the interim stage, the local authority is under a duty to take a household’s needs into account but is not required to meet all those specific needs. The latter requirement only applies at the permanent stage. This reasoning led to the dismissal of the appeal, in which the appellant contended that the four-room temporary housing provided by Glasgow City Council was ‘unsuitable’ for the needs of her family of six considering her son’s autism and special needs, relying on s.39(3) of the 1987 Act and article 4(b) of the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014. Lady Simler explained that the obligation to secure permanent accommodation is necessarily more onerous and outcome-specific than the duties at the interim stage.
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7 April 2025 by Rebecca Ebner-Landy
In UK News
The Sentencing Council has suspended plans for new guidelines which could have led to different sentences depending on someone’s age, sex and ethnicity. The Sentencing Council’s decision to suspend plans comes in the wake of ministers preparing to “disapply” wording in the revised sentencing guidelines on the imposition of community and custodial sentences, through primary legislation. Justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, had aimed to pass a bill through Parliament to halt the guidelines within 24 hours but was informed that it would be impossible before the Easter recess. Given that the revised sentencing guidelines were due to take effect in England and Wales last Tuesday, there would have been a “confusing period” during which time the guidelines would be enforced before being declared illegal.
These guidelines had specified a list of 10 groups for whom pre-sentence reports would “normally be necessary”. The groups in question included “those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community.” In other words, the guidelines would have required magistrates and judges to consult a pre-sentence report before deciding whether to imprison someone of an ethnic and religious minority, in addition to other groups like young adults, abuse survivors and mothers. In doing so, the system would have “taken into account structural disparities in sentencing outcomes” and would have introduced measures targeted at combating racism in the courts. Senior legal figures, and the Society of Black Lawyers, have emphasised that the guidelines were an attempt to achieve “equal treatment” after “racist two-tier policing for 500 years”, specifically through attempting to address disparities in sentencing between white and non-white offenders.
After a meeting on Monday, the Sentencing Council confirmed it would not be introducing the guidelines when “there is a draft bill due for imminent introduction that would make it unlawful”. This follows the Sentencing Council having previously rejected a request from Mahmood to remove the ten specified groups as she said they would “single out specific cohorts for differential treatment”. In making this request, Mahmood had sought to demonstrate to the public that “Parliament is sovereign” and “everyone is treated equally by the criminal justice system”.
This matter has created tension between the executive and the judiciary, who make up the majority of the Sentencing Council. Mahmood has told MPs that the Sentencing Council’s role will be subject to review. In the Commons on Tuesday, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary called for Lord Justice Davis, the head of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales to be sacked over the row. Lord Hermer KC, Attorney General, speaking to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, has since emphasised that political attacks on judges are a “huge threat to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary”.
In International News
Hungary is due to leave the International Criminal Court on grounds that it has become “political”. This was announced during a visit to Hungary by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, who is the subject of an ICC arrest warrant which was issued on 21st November 2024. Prior to this visit, Human Rights Watch had urged Hungary to deny entry to Netanyahu or to arrest him upon entry, in light of the arrest warrant. Specifically, Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch outlined how Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s invitation to Netanyahu was an “affront to victims of serious crimes” and urged Hungary to “comply with its legal obligations as a party to the ICC.”
As a member of the ICC, Hungary was in theory obliged to arrest Netanyahu in line with the ICC warrant. However, Orbán had previously said the ruling would have no effect in Hungary. Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó had notably criticised the warrants as “shameful and absurd” and “unacceptable”. Hungary has aligned itself with other European countries including France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Germany who have emphasised their non-committal to enforcement of the ICC’s warrant to arrest Netanyahu.
In announcing Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC this week, Orbán proclaimed that the ICC had “diminished into a political forum”, something that had “become the clearest in light of its decisions on Israel”. Netanyahu has thanked Orbán for taking a “bold and principled” position against the ICC.
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