Employment news Amendments to Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill Various government-sponsored amendments have been made to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which is presently before the House of Lords, including: Disapplying the qualifying period for unfair dismissal where the reason for the dismissal is the employee’s political opinions. The purpose of this amendment is […]
Housing Law News Social rented sector size criteria: on 27 February 2013 the minority opposition parties initiated a full debate in the House of Commons on the introduction of the housing benefit size criteria into social housing (the ‘bedroom tax’) from 1 April 2013. For the full debate, click here. Judicial review proceedings designed to […]
News Garden Court Chambers’ Stephanie Harrison has been appointed Queen’s Council. Click here for more information. The Garden Court Immigration Team blog on ‘Fairness in the Points Based System: Post Decision Evidence, "Continuing Applications" and Evidential Flexibility’. Click here for more information. The UKBA has renewed the temporary concession for Syrians until February 2014. Click […]
Garden Court Chambers is delighted to announce that minority rights and civil liberties champion Stephanie Harrison is to be appointed as Queen's Counsel.
Jan Luba QC has this week become Chair of the charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust which provides free help and advice for vulnerable debtors and low-income households.
Mark Symes has acted for the Applicant in SHH v United Kingdom 60367/10 - HEJUD [2013] ECHR 102 (29 January 2013), in which the European Court of Human Rights split 4:3, the majority finding that it would not contravene the right to be free from inhuman a
Housing Law News Direct payment of housing benefit: Southwark Council is one of those undertaking a demonstration project of the proposed direct payment of housing benefit to social housing tenants. The council identified 2,000 benefits claimants to take part: 1,500 council tenants and 500 tenants of Family Mosaic housing association. Its key findings were that: […]
News On his trip to India the Prime Minister announced details of a super priority visa service which will allow frequent travellers from India to have their visas processed in just one day. To read further click here. Cases MA, BT, DA v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Case C‑648/11) (Advocate General’s Opinion: […]
Employment news Workplace stress affecting home life Nearly nine out of 10 town hall employees are suffering from increased work pressures, a Unison survey reveals. Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, said the impact of spending review cuts and 250,000 subsequent job losses meant ‘impossible demands are being placed on stressed out council […]
***** SPECIAL ISSUE. Welcome to the 300th issue of the Housing Law Bulletin. The first issues were funded as part of a specialist support contract from the Legal Services Commission but the Housing Team at Garden Court Chambers has maintained and developed the Bulletin in the years since the contract ended. It is provided as […]
News A new report from the Refugee Council on the restrictions faced by refugees and asylum seekers in accessing further and higher education. Click here for more information. Cases KS (Burma) & Anor v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2013] EWCA Civ 6713th February 2013The Court of Appeal found that contrary to TL […]
Garden Court collaborated with digital media organisation sounddelivery this week to host an evening exploring innovative ways to give a voice to people who are socially excluded, marginalised and suffer from social injustice.
Housing Law News Welfare reform and social housing: every housing benefit (HB) authority is being awarded additional central government funding to meet some of the administrative costs of the impact of the various reforms to HB being introduced in 2013. This includes £4m in respect of the impact of the social housing size criteria (‘bedroom […]
News For the highly critical report of the cross-party parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people and the Children’s Society’s comments on the same, click here. Immigration RulesNew changes to the Immigration Rules by way of HC943 came into effect on 31 January 2013 making changes to the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) route. […]
Employment news More blacklisting uncovered At least 111 workers from Wales were on an illegal blacklist which looked at the backgrounds of thousands of construction workers across the UK. The Information Commissioner’s office uncovered the list which included the names of people with union and campaign group affiliation. This is the latest installment in this […]
Housing Law News Fraud in Social Housing: the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 31 January 2013. For a copy of the Act, click here. The Act will be brought into force by ministerial order on a date to be appointed. Welfare reform and social housing: the National Housing Federation […]
News A new study by the European Network for Technical Co-operation on the Application of the Dublin II Regulation found vast divergences in the way EU Member States apply the instrument with some failing to have adequate regard to the humanitarian clause or the provisions maintaining family membership. Meanwhile the UN Working Group on Arbitrary […]
In a landmark decision, after a remittal by the Court of Appeal, in In the matter of an application by JR 47 for judicial review, Mr Justice McCloskey granted declarations establishing that, for the first time in Northern Ireland, there was a statutory du
Garden Court Chambers is delighted to announce that Stephen Knafler QC has been elected as a new Joint Heads of Chambers. In accordance with Garden Court's democratic constitution, he was elected by fellow members of Chambers at this week's AGM. He joins
Thousands of asylum-seeking children and their families are being forced into severe poverty a woefully inadequate asylum support system, a parliamentary inquiry revealed today. The Inquiry into Asylum Support for Children and Young People, whose panel in
