Weekly Update 4 February 2022

Weekly Update 4 February 2022

Dear Friends,

This week we learnt from the Gray inquiry update that police are investigating 12 gatherings in or around the UK Prime Minister's offices at 10 Downing Street for possible breaches of Coronavirus regulations.

The intense public interest in 'partygate' has shown how much the Rule of Law matters to people. However, threats to the Rule of Law are not always so well publicised or widely understood.

In this week's Update, we bring you news of our latest report on the Nationality and Borders Bill, which includes deeply problematic provisions that would deviate from the UK's international commitments under the UN Refugee Convention. We also discuss shortcomings in the law-making process exposed by the Government's abrupt decision to abandon the Coronavirus vaccine mandate for health sector workers.

At the EU level, we highlight what is at stake in an upcoming decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the validity of the new Rule of Law budget conditionality mechanism.

We share news from the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre, including initiatives to increase the involvement of people with lived experience of modern slavery in the work of the Centre.

Finally, we would like to remind readers that on Tuesday 8 February we will be co-hosting a free webinar on the continuing human rights journey in Scotland, including reflections on last October's UK Supreme Court decision which held that some provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill were outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. Bingham Centre panellists will be joined by senior speakers from Scottish Government, civil society, and academia. If you would like to register for this webinar, please visit our event page or see the further information provided at the end of this email.

You can read the whole Update here.