Monthly News Archives: September 2025
26 September 2025 by Guest Contributor
By Kian Leong Tan
INTRODUCTION
In R (Anaesthetists United Ltd and Others) v General Medical Council [2025] EWHC 2270 (Admin) (“Anaesthetists United”), Mrs Justice Lambert dismissed a judicial review claim brought by the claimants against the defendant regulator for Physician Associates (“PAs”) and Anaesthesia Associates (“AAs”) – collectively referred to hereafter as “Associates” – in the UK.
The claim is the most recent instalment in a brewing saga over the continued use and regulation of Associates in the UK’s healthcare system:
- In April 2025, Lambert J dismissed the British Medical Association (“BMA”)’s judicial review challenge (R (British Medical Association v General Medical Council [2025] EWHC 960 (Admin)) to the GMC’s decisions to (i) apply the same basic professional standards to doctors and Associates, and (ii) refer to all three professions collectively as ‘medical professionals’.
- Just prior to the handing down of Anaesthetists United, Professor Gillian Leng released her final report following the conclusion of her independent review into the Associate professions.
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22 September 2025 by Lucy McCann
In this episode, Lucy McCann is joined by Zelda Perkins, CEO of Can’t Buy My Silence UK and former PA to Harvey Weinstein, who broke her NDA and has since campaigned against the use of NDAs to silence workers speaking out against abuse, and Emma Darlow Stearn, a barrister practising from Cloisters Chambers, who specialises in employment and discrimination law and, in her previous role as Senior Legal Adviser for whistleblowing charity Protect, collaborated with Zelda to make the law on NDAs more accessible.
Zelda shares her personal story about the signing and breaking of her NDA, which had prevented her speaking up about Harvey Weinstein’s behaviour, and about her campaign Can’t Buy My Silence UK which has in large part led to amendments to the Employment Rights Bill (under Clause 22A) that will ban employers from using NDAs in cases of harassment and discrimination. Zelda and Emma discuss the nature and possible impact of those amendments which, since the time of recording, have been approved by the House of Commons and are due to become law in Autumn 2025 as s.202A Employment Rights Act 1996.
Law Pod UK is published by 1 Crown Office Row. This episode was co-produced by 1 Crown Office Row and Emma Darlow Stearn. Supporting articles are published on the UK Human Rights Blog. Follow and interact with the podcast team on Twitter.
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22 September 2025 by Benjamin Savill
In the news
The UK Government enforced its first deportations under its controversial “one-in-one-out” asylum-seeker agreement with France this week, despite an interim injunction on Wednesday temporarily blocking the removal of one Eritrean national. Home Office sources reported the deportation of asylum seekers of Indian, Iranian and Eritrean nationality under the scheme; one deportee’s challenge at the High Court on human rights grounds failed upon Mr Justice Sheldon’s finding that, as a fellow signatory of the European Convention, France would afford the applicant the same human rights protections as the UK. Earlier in the week, a 25-year-old Eritrean man had succeeded in being granted an interim injunction temporarily staying his removal to France, after it was argued that the applicant required more time to make representations on his claim to be a victim of modern slavery. The ruling had prompted the newly appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to accuse asylum seekers of making “vexatious, last-minute claims” that “make a mockery of this country’s generosity”, and to issue new guidance to the Home Office slavery assessment team. The UK-France Dangerous Journeys Agreement was presented to Parliament last month, and is set to run until June 2026. It provides for the forced return of individuals entering the UK illegally from France, in exchange for the same number of asylum seekers who do meet UK immigration rules. The first French arrivals under the ”exchange” are now due to enter the UK over the next week.
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15 September 2025 by Peter Skelton KC
WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC INQUIRY?
Public inquiries have proliferated in recent years. There are currently over 20 underway in the UK. That is twice as many as in 2005 when the Inquiries Act came into force. The four new statutory inquiries initiated so far in 2025 cover a diverse range of subjects: the horrific attacks in Nottingham in 2023 and Southport in 2024, the long-running grooming gangs’ scandal, and the infamous Battle of Orgreave in 1984 in which violent clashes occurred between striking miners and the police.
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10 September 2025 by Rosalind English
Episode 227: It’s been an interesting year in the law, with Richard Hermer KC and the Shadow Attorney General Lord Wolfson of Tredegar joining battle on what constitutes the “thin” or “thick” concept of the rule of law. We interview Lady Hale on her long career in the law, the Law Commission and the Supreme Court. Lord Sumption speaks out on the need to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and Freedoms. We have speculations on the Assisted Dying Bill which has yet to make its way through the House of Lords, and an interview with a former barrister of 1 Crown Office Row and now MP on the potential implications of the Employee Rights Bill, also in the Lords.
Of course there are many more episodes to come as summer descends into autumn, but sit back and enjoy a leisurely review of the wide range of topics we have covered since 2025 was in its infancy.
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9 September 2025 by Guest Contributor
Guest Contributor Alice Grant
Rydon Group Holdings Ltd v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [2025] EWHC 2182 (Admin)
Introduction
In Rydon Group Holdings Ltd v Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities [2025] EWHC 2182 (Admin), the High Court dismissed a judicial review challenge brought by Rydon, a developer criticised in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report. The Court held that the government’s decisions, principally the designation of the Claimant as ‘unfit’ to carry out remediation works, were contractual in nature. As such, they were governed by private law and not amenable to judicial review, save under allegations of fraud, corruption, or bad faith. Rydon remains excluded from carrying out the remediation works and is liable to reimburse costs through the Building Safety Fund (BSF).
Factual Background
In the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, the government established the BSF to finance remediation of unsafe cladding and a contractual framework for developers, the Self-Remediation Terms (SRTs). Developers were required to sign the SRTs in order to join the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS), thereby avoiding statutory restrictions imposed under the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) and the Building Safety (Responsible Actors Scheme and Prohibitions) Regulations 2023 (RAS Regulations 2023).
By August 2023, three high-rise blocks developed by Rydon, known as the Cable Street Buildings, had reached the funding approval stage under the BSF. In September 2023, Rydon signed the SRTs and joined the Responsible Actors Scheme (RAS). Rydon requested that the Cable Street Buildings be withdrawn from the BSF so that it could undertake the remediation itself. On 28 February 2024, however, the Secretary of State designated Rydon as a ‘Designated Participant Developer’ under the SRTs, thereby deeming it ‘unfit’ to carry out the remediation works.
Rydon Maintenance, a subsidiary of the Claimant, had been the principal contractor of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment. In the Grenfell Inquiry Phase 2 Report, Rydon was considered to have had “considerable responsibility for the fire” through “inadequate thought to fire safety” and poor oversight of subcontractors (at [4]).
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8 September 2025 by Jennifer Zhou
In UK News
The Sentencing Bill 2025 was introduced by the government. The Bill follows a major review into sentencing by former Justice Secretary David Gauke, and accepts the majority of its recommendations. It aims to follow the prison overcrowding crisis through measures including:
- Creating a presumption that custodial sentences of less than 12 months will be suspended (subject to a number of exceptions);
- Empowering courts to give a greater range of community orders, including bans from certain venues and events and ‘restriction orders’ limiting movement;
- Extending suspended sentences to max. three years (up from two years);
- Allowing courts to defer sentencing for up to 12 months (up from six months), so that offenders can demonstrate good behaviour;
- Setting a minimum release point of 33% for standard determinate sentences (down from 40%);
- Allowing foreign prisoners to be removed from UK prisons without first serving a minimum period of custody.
Controversially, the Bill also imposes an obligation on the Sentencing Council to obtain permission from the Lord Chancellor and Lady Chief Justice before issuing sentencing guidelines. This follows a furore in early 2025 over draft guidelines which included wording about an offender’s ethnicity.
The refugee family reunion scheme has been temporarily suspended. Yvette Cooper (who was Home Secretary before a Cabinet reshuffle on Friday) announced that migrants granted asylum will be temporarily unable to bringing partners and children to the UK. The suspension will continue until the government has imposed further conditions on the scheme through legal changes.
Comedy writer Graham Linehan was arrested over tweets about transgenderism, including one which referenced punching trans women ‘in the balls’. The arrest has been criticised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as members of the shadow cabinet. Mr Linehan is currently also being tried for harassment in relation to an altercation with a transgender activist.
In International News
France has issued arrest warrants for Syrian ex-president Bashar al-Assad, his brother, and five other officials regime officials. Al-Assad has been living in Russia since being deposed in December 2024. These warrants relate to the 2012 bombing of a press centre in Homs; French photographer Rémi Ochlik and American journalist Marie Colvin were killed. The bombing is being investigated by the French judiciary as a war crime and crime against humanity.
In the Courts
The Home Office has received permission to challenge a High Court ruling allowing Palestine Action to appeal its proscription under terror legislation. Palestine Action, a group founded by Ms Huda Ammori, was banned as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. In a judgment dated 30 July 2025, Ms Ammori was granted permission by the High Court to appeal this proscription. Now, the Home Office has won the right to challenge the 30 July ruling. In an unpublished order seen by the press, the Court described the government’s appeal has having ‘a real prospect of success’; it is due to be heard on 25 September.
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