The latest courts news, headlines and analysis from The NE Times.
Ministers want to lift asylum and human-rights appeals out of the overloaded courts and into a faster body of trained adjudicators. Lawyers warn speed must not come at the cost of fairness.
Chi Leung Wai and Chung Biu Yuen were sentenced to 10 and eight years respectively after a jury found they conducted surveillance on pro-democracy campaigners in Britain for a foreign intelligence service.
Courts are now required to suspend most sentences of 12 months or less under the Sentencing Act 2026, as ministers grapple with a prison estate operating well beyond its designed capacity.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 creates an offence of carrying a blade with intent to use unlawful violence, carrying up to seven years in prison, as ministers seek to halve knife crime.
Vickrum Digwa was given a minimum of 21 years for murdering 18-year-old Henry Nowak, after footage emerged of officers handcuffing the victim as he said he had been stabbed.