June 11th, 2018
Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that if the issue of legislating for safe and legal access to abortion services in Northern Ireland comes before the House of Commons, MPs will be given a free vote. This means that MPs will be able to vote according to their consciences rather than according to party policy […]
June 8th, 2018
Following yesterday’s judgment by the Supreme Court, politicians in both the House of Commons and the Lords called on the UK Government to change the law to allow safe and legal access to abortion in Northern Ireland. And pro-choice campaigner Sarah Ewart, who had a fatal foetal abnormality, lodged a fresh legal challenge in the […]
June 7th, 2018
The Supreme Court has today concluded that Northern Ireland’s laws that ban abortion in almost all circumstances are incompatible with UK human rights law. Humanists UK, the First Intervener in the case, has welcomed the decision, and called on the UK Government to act as a matter of urgency to amend the law and protect […]
June 6th, 2018
Tomorrow at around 9.45 am the UK Supreme Court is due to hand down its judgment in the case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) over the laws on abortion in Northern Ireland. The case focuses on whether abortion should be legal in the cases of (i) women with pregnancies where the […]
June 6th, 2018
‘The education system is the best tool we have to promote integration, but it is not being used nearly as effectively as it ought to be’, Humanists UK has told the UK Government. Responding to a consultation on the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper, published in March, Humanists UK says that continued support for faith […]
June 6th, 2018
A legal challenge brought by the British Homeopathic Association against NHS England’s decision to remove homeopathic treatments from routine primary care has been dismissed on all points by the High Court. Humanists UK, who launched a petition calling on the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to add homeopathic remedies to the ‘NHS Blacklist’, has welcomed the […]
June 5th, 2018
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy has led an emergency debate in the House of Commons on legislating for free, safe, and legal access to abortion in Northern Ireland. Several members of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) including Jess Phillips, Karyn Smith, Angela Eagle, and Lloyd Russell-Moyle, intervened in the debate having been briefed by […]
June 5th, 2018
A group of major teaching unions, charities, and subject organisations have called for personal, social, health, and economic education (PSHE) to be made compulsory in all English schools. In a new report published yesterday, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Education Union (NEU) as well as organisations such as the PSHE […]
June 5th, 2018
The number of pupils taking GCSE Religious Studies (RS) has suffered a 13% drop compared to 2017, provisional figures published by Ofqual have revealed. Whereas 297,800 students chose to study GCSE RS in 2017, just 260,300 were entered for GCSE RS in 2018, a fall of 37,500. This is the largest drop in both percentage […]
May 31st, 2018
In a response to the Home Office and Ministry of Justice consultation on the terms of the Domestic Abuse Bill, Humanists UK has called for the Government to remove consensual abortion from criminal law and instead have it governed through medical regulation like all other healthcare procedures. This would mean that women who procure an […]
May 31st, 2018
A new postgraduate degree from the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling (NSPC) will provide the UK’s first academic route into humanist pastoral care and humanist celebrancy. Humanists UK, the national charity representing non-religious people, has welcomed the new course. The Master of Arts degree in Existential and Humanist Pastoral Care was developed by the […]
May 31st, 2018
In its formal response to a consultation on how schools in England should comply with the independent school standards, Humanists UK has welcomed the Government’s effort to crackdown on the narrow, intolerant, and discriminatory teaching identified in an alarming number of private faith schools. The new advice for private schools was provoked by the increasing […]
