The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill again

The BBC reports that Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood, Lab), who came second in the ballot for Commons private Members’ bills, is to take up the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill that failed in the last session of Parliament when it ran out of time in the Lords. According to the report, her intention is to introduce an identical bill to the one that was read the third time in the Commons and sent to the Lords, with the intention of invoking the procedure under the Parliament Acts, assuming that the Commons passes the bill and the Lords fails to do so.

The text of the bill as first printed by the Lords is here, and there is a Commons guide to the procedure under the Parliament Acts here. 

Proscription of Palestine Action was lawful

On Monday, a five-judge Court of Appeal composed of Bs Carr LCJ, Sir Geoffrey Vos MR and Edis, Lewis and Whipple LJJ handed down a unanimous judgment on the Government’s appeal against the ruling of the Administrative Court that its ban on Palestine Action was illegal. In the lower court, Palestine Action’s founder, Huda Ammori, had successfully argued that the decision to proscribe the group breached her rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under Articles 10 and 11 ECHR; however, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision in Secretary of State for the Home Department v Huda Ammori, R (on the application of) [2026] EWCA Civ 721.

The Court of Appeal concluded that “The Proscription Decision ought not to have been quashed” [7]:

“The Home Secretary did not fail to comply with her Proscription Policy, on its proper interpretation. The purpose of the Proscription Policy was not to limit or constrain the factors available to the Home Secretary for consideration. She was fully entitled to take into account the operational benefits of proscription in dealing with Palestine Action holistically as an organisation. On the basis of the Proscription Policy, the Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was, subject to the questions of proportionality and fair balance, lawful” [8].

Though the Court rejected the Home Secretary’s argument that Article 17 ECHR (prohibition of abuse of rights) meant that any expression of support for, or association with, Palestine Action was outside the scope of Articles 10 and 11, it concluded that, though the proscription of an organisation like Palestine Action was highly controversial and that it was supported by many otherwise law-abiding citizens [204] and was engaged in peaceful as well as non-peaceful protest,

“It is, nonetheless, a fundamental mistake to overlook the fact that Palestine Action overtly promotes unlawful violence amounting to terrorism. It is not, as it claims, a direct action civil disobedience protest group like the suffragettes operating transparently in the open. It is a covert organisation that operates using secret cells to avoid the detection and prosecution of those using violence to destroy the property of third parties. Palestine Action’s activities have caused injury as well as property damage” [205] …

The Proscription Decision was not unlawful. We set aside the quashing order of 25 February 2026 made by the Divisional Court” [208].

Ms Ammori has said that she intends to appeal the judgment to the UK Supreme Court. But that assumes that she will be given permission to appeal, which is by no means automatic.

Council orders Buddhist group to stop worship at former pub

On 16 June, the Religion Media Centre reported that Waltham Forest council had ordered the Buddhist group, the Confucius & Tao Association, to stop using the Lord Brooke former pub in Walthamstow. The council said that the group was undertaking activities despite a rejected planning application from a decade ago; the Buddhist association bought the building in June 2014 but was refused planning permission to convert it into a place of worship, only allowing informal meetings.

Six weeks ago, the council demanded that the association stop its “unauthorised use of the land and buildings as a place of worship, associated community centre, and ancillary café” and that fixtures and fittings associated with the temple must be removed. The association is appealing the decision.

Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

Archdeacon Andrew Orr has been elected as the new Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. Archdeacon Orr succeeds the Rt Revd Paul Colton, whose last public service in the diocese was on Saturday, 18 April 2026. 

Quick links

• Pierluigi Consorti, DiReSoM: The ECtHR Judgment in Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses v. Italy: A First Note.
• Matthew England, Hansard Society: Must MPs choose between improving the assisted dying bill and using the Parliament Act? An examination of the “suggested amendments” procedure of s.2(4) of the Parliament Act 1911.
• Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter: “Intese”: Strasbourg Condemns Italy’s Forty-Year Exclusion of Jehovah’s Witnesses.