The Law Show

So-called blitz courts are being expanded across England and Wales. A number of courts across the two countries have been holding regular blitz hearings since April. Multiple cases are heard every day instead of just one, and are grouped by type. A set of plea hearings might be scheduled together in one blitz court, and sentencing hearings at another. Blitz courts increase efficiency by making sur...

The Representation of the People Bill 2026 is in the King’s Speech which means it’s on the Government’s legislative agenda and is going through Parliament. The Bill covers parliamentary ballots cross the UK, and contains sweeping changes, including giving 16 and 17 year-olds the right to vote in a general election and referendums. The Bill also aims to strengthen the rules around political donatio...

Note: this episode contains frequent references to rape, sexual assault and physical assault. There's been public confusion and outrage over the sentences given to three teenage boys, who were convicted of rape. In November 2024 and January 2025, two girls, then aged 15 and 14, were attacked in separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, by two 14-year-olds. Another boy, then 13, was also conv...

The Renter’s Rights Act came into force at the start of May, and it marked the biggest change to how private rentals work in England in a generation. There are a host of new protections and legal entitlements for renters, and many potential pitfalls for landlords to consider. Assured shorthold tenancies have been abolished, and have automatically been converted into rolling tenancies - sometimes k...

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s Restoring Order and Control policy is underway. It's based - in part - on measures carried out in Denmark which cut asylum claims there to a 40 year low. From now on in the UK, people granted asylum - refugees - will face a review every two and a half years. If their country of origin is regarded as safe, they may be encouraged, or even forced, to go back. Ther...

Under international law, when can a country declare war on another? Was it legal for Israel and the United States to have carried out "pre-emptive" airstrikes across most of Iran’s provinces, which started the war? The USA says the attacks were justfied, because of an imminent threat from Iran's nuclear programme, and Israel claims it acted in self-defence. The Israeli President went further - tel...

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says she makes “no apology” for announcing the roll-out of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) to all the police services in England and Wales. Under a government white paper on policing, the number of Live Facial Recognition vans will increase from 10 to 50. Police say it’s groundbreaking technology in the fight against crime, but civil liberties groups say it’s autho...

The courts system in England and Wales is in an unprecedented crisis. The backlog has reached 80,000 cases, and some defendants are being told they won't be able to have a criminal trial until 2030. The government has introduced the Courts and Tribunals Bill, which contains a raft of measures to tackle delays and bring down the backlog; but the Justice Secretary David Lammy has admitted that thing...

The former US ambassador Peter Mandelson is on bail after being arrested on suspicion of Misconduct in Public Office. Police have been investigating claims that when he was Business secretary, he shared market-sensitive government information with the financier Jeffrey Epstein. His arrest comes a few days after police arrested Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, also on suspicion of Misconduct in Public O...

Politically motivated attacks on the legal profession in the UK have led to barristers, solicitors, advocates and judges being subjected to violence, death threats and rape threats. Some have faced threats to their family members. This is according to the The Bar Council of England and Wales, the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates, the Bar of No...

When the Labour government came to power in 2024, it faced a crisis in the criminal courts, with ever-longer delays and a growing backlog of cases. The Ministry of Justice's budget is now one third higher in real terms than in 2019, but according to the latest figures, crown court cases that are yet to be heard reached a record high of 78,329. In October, the Justice Secretary David Lammy promised...

Immigration has dominated headlines for months, but what UK laws cover this most emotive of issues? When someone arrives here, what are the legal routes they have to take if they want to stay in the UK? What's the legal difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee? What does "indefinite leave to remain" mean? And what's the difference between being deported, being removed and being extradited...

The phrase “State related deaths” might mean little to the average person, but it's an umbrella term referring to a death in custody or a mental health setting. It also applies to situations when people have taken their own lives while in the armed forces or even to disasters like Grenfell or Hillsborough. What all these have in common is that they are followed by inquests or public inquiries, whe...

The Victims and Courts Bill is progressing through Parliament, and will force convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings. If criminals convicted of the most serious offences in England or Wales refuse to attend, or are disruptive in court, they will face an extra two years in prison. There are other sanctions too, including missing out on family visits. ‘Reasonable force’ can also be...

Wrongful convictions in the Post Office scandal and for train fare evasion have been described by the Government as ‘catastrophic failures’, and it's held a consultation in England and Wales to reform private prosecutions. It covers private prosecutions brought by organisations, and also, the SJP - the single justice procedure - where a minor criminal offence is decided by a magistrate behind clos...

What legal responsibilities does a company have to keep your data secure? M&S, and the Co-op are picking up the pieces after their systems were hacked. The cyber criminals claim to have the private information of 20 million people who signed up to Co-op's membership scheme, but the firm have not confirmed that number. The Co-op says the breach did not include members’ passwords, bank or credit...

When someone passes away - legally, what do you have to do? In this episode, Dr Joelle Grogan and guests look at the host of legal obligations that have to be considered in England and Wales from declaring a death, to the circumstances in which a coroner becomes involved, dealing with a dead person’s estate and the grant of probate. Note that in Scotland, different laws and rules apply. The Procur...

Justice delayed is justice denied - the court backlog in England and Wales has reached a record high and suspects being charged with new offences are regularly told they may not get a trial until 2027. Some courts are already booking court dates for 2028. The government has commissioned an independent review of criminal courts to work out how to cut waiting times. A victim of crime and a criminal...

Since the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel, and the IDF military invasion of the Gaza strip, terms like 'war crimes', 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' have been used when discussing the conflict. Warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander Moha...

Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole-life sentences after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital - with two attempts on one of her victims - between June 2015 and June 2016. But a campaign to clear her is being led by 14 medical experts who say there is no medical evidence for murders or attacks on those babies in her ward at t...

A parliamentary inquiry has just started work into the law around Joint enterprise. Joint enterprise is contentious because if a person is seen to be involved in a crime, from knowing about it, to egging someone on, being present, or even being able to predict that someone is likely to use a weapon like a gun - then they could be considered as guilty as the person who pulled the trigger. It has a...

The job of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - or CCRC - is to investigate cases where people may have been wrongfully convicted of a crime in the criminal courts of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The CCRC has faced criticism over it's actions - or lack of action - in a high-profile miscarriage of justice. In April this year, the CCRC offered an unreserved apology to Andrew Malkinson. He...

Last year, more than a quarter of a million cases started in Family Court in England and Wales. Yet, to most people, the way they work is a mystery. Traditionally, they were always held in private, because they discuss sensitive information about peoples' personal lives, and to protect children from harm. Since 2009 reporters have been allowed to attend hearings. But they weren't allowed to tell a...

In this new series of the Law Show, Dr Joelle Grogan and guests look at the legislation that affects your life. One of the flagship pieces of legislation for the Labour Government is the Renters' Rights Bill - scrapping no-fault evictions, and imposing new obligations and penalties on rogue landlords. How will it benefit tenants and affect landlords? Also on the programme: a raft of new laws are c...

Weekly conversation led by Dr Joelle Grogan to give you an in-depth understanding of the law stories making news and the legal decisions that could have a bearing on everyone in the UK. This week: Traumatised jurors: new research has found that as much as half of people who serve on the juries of gruesome criminal trials, such as child murders or rape, can suffer symptoms of vicarious psychologica...