In UK News
A modest rise in justice spending was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Spending Review.
The courts system will receive up to £450m extra a year by 2028-29, helping to increase Crown Court sitting days and implement the recommendations of the forthcoming Leveson review. The probation service will receive up to £700m extra funding by 2028-9. Funding will also be awarded to prison building and the Law Officers’ departments. The average real terms increase in Ministry of Justice funding is of 3.1%.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill returned to the House of Commons for debate on Friday 13 June.
Among the amendments discussed was a prohibition on registered medical practitioners or other health practitioners raising assisted dying with a person under 18.
Despite opposition by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the Bill’s proposer, it was approved by a vote of 259 to 216.
It was the first time Leadbeater had been defeated on the Bill in a Commons vote.
The government announced that rough sleeping will be decriminalised after more than 200 years. The Vagrancy Act 1824, introduced in response to increased homelessness after the Napoleonic Wars and Industrial Revolution, will be scrapped by spring 2026.
