Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry and report: Freedom of Speech in Universities
27 March 2018
Serious barriers limit free speech in universities, finds a March 2018 report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Serious barriers limit free speech in universities, finds a March 2018 report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Globally, the UK’s 30% ratio for women in the House of Commons puts it 49th in ranked list. This is according to the February 2018
Equality bodies in Scotland have issued a March 2018 statement welcoming the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill.
‘The legal aid means test is preventing families in poverty from accessing justice’ says a March 2018 report (PDF) from the University of Loughborough and Law Society.
This report considers whether people required by the civil legal aid system to contribute to legal costs, based on their income and assets, can always afford to do so.
The report finds:
At the maximum level of disposable income at which legal aid is allowed, households have too little income to reach a minimum standard of living even before footing any legal bills. Typically, they have disposable incomes 10% to 30% too low to afford a minimum budget
Individuals with gross income above the £2,657 a month limit could generally afford to contribute a substantial amount to legal costs. However, some people with this level of gross income who are supporting families have incomes below the minimum, mainly because gross income includes tax credits and benefits, which contribute to meeting the cost of additional family members
Those with above £316 a month in adjusted disposable income may receive legal aid but must contribute to their costs. This excludes almost all households where anyone works, and is roughly equivalent to the level of means-tested benefits, whose recipients receive full legal aid regardless of income.
Read the full report (PDF).
The profiles of homeless people are changing, with children becoming the largest group of people in emergency shelters as a result of a deterioration in the living conditions of extremely vulnerable families.
This from the March 2018 annual report (PDF) from the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA)
This report reveals how millions of Europeans face housing exclusion on a daily basis as well as a dramatic picture of increasing homelessness across most of the EU – in particular amongst children, women and migrants.
The report finds:
In France, 20,845 people called the 115 homeless helpline requesting accommodation (in June 2017)
Dublin City Council spent € 39 million on hotel nights for homeless people in 2016, while € 10.7 million was spent on prevention and supported housing
In Britain, 29% of spending was on temporary accommodation and (44% of which was spent on hotels/Bed and Breakfast) and 61% on housing services (between 2015-2016)
Over the last number of years, only two European countries (Finland and Norway) have seen a reduction in the number of homeless people
Read the full report (PDF).