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The UK government has announced a consultation on new laws to protect consumers from loss where they have already paid for products but not received them when the retailer goes bust. The Law Commission examined the issue of consumer prepayments on retailer insolvency in a July 2016 report which reco

On-the-spot fines issued by police for anti-social behaviour should be doubled for the worst offenders, the Scottish Conservatives have argued. The party said that the current fixed penalty notice (FPN) for offences including breach of the peace and vandalism should be doubled from £50 to &pou

Requiring potential employees to declare criminal convictions on their job applications should be banned, according to new research. A study found that criminal record declarations can deter candidates from applying and actually do little to predict the risk of re-offending.

Spiralling rents in Glasgow and Edinburgh’s private rented sector are leading to more homelessness and poverty, according to Govan Law Centre. GLC said that the story beneath the Scottish government’s official statistics is stark, and deeply worrying: casework from the centre's Citywide

Up to 1,000 police officers from Scotland and England are being trained for possible deployment to Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal Brexit, The Guardian reports. The move was requested by the PSNI in anticipation of potential unrest about border arrangements that could be put in place if t

Jennifer Jack, a member of the legal team that represented the MPs in Wightman and others, summarises the case. Brexit is fraught with uncertainty – but there is now one thing we know without a doubt: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has confirmed the UK is legally e

Two Scots lawyers have been awarded OBEs in the Queen's New Year Honours list. Joan Aitken was the Scottish Prison Complaints Commissioner (Ombudsman) from 1999 until her appointment as a Traffic Commissioner.

Two members of the Faculty of Advocates have been named winners in the Scottish bar section of The Legal 500 UK Awards 2019. Roddy Dunlop QC, was chosen as Silk of the Year, while Usman Tariq took the Junior of the Year title.

The Irish government has given its formal backing to a joint initiative of The Bar of Ireland, the Law Society and the wider legal community in promoting Ireland as a post-Brexit centre for international legal services. The initiative, also supported by IDA Ireland, will now form part of the go

Sheriff Officers and enforcement specialists Fraser Irvine Sheriff Officers LLP has announced its accreditation as a Living Wage employer. Alex Irvine, partner, said: “We believe that people are our key resource and committing to the Living Wage is an investment in the future and will help ens

A man robbed a bank on a remote Arctic archipelago that is home to more polar bears than humans. The armed thief stole money from the bank in Norway's Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean.

There needs to be a "fundamental change in approach to the funding of legal aid", solicitors in Glasgow have said in an open letter to the Scottish government.

Short term prison sentences of less than 12 months will be brought to an end this year, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has announced. New figures showed more than 1,000 people spent last Christmas in prison on such sentences.

Measures to help police and prosecutors to tackle domestic abuse will come into force on 1 April next year, ministers have announced. The Domestic Abuse Act 2018, passed by the Scottish Parliament last year, creates a new offence which explicitly covers psychological harm as well as physical harm, a

The number of people found guilty of drink driving has gone up for the first time in 10 years, official statistics show. The figures indicate that 3,646 people were convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol in 2016-17, an increase of three per cent on 2015-16's figure of 3,537.