Review of child protection mandatory reporting laws for the early childhood education and care sector

This discussion paper seeks submissions on a review of child protection mandatory reporting requirements for the early childhood education and care sector. The Queensland Law Reform Commission has released a discussion paper (WP 73) seeking submissions on its review of child protection mandatory reporting requirements for the early childhood education and care sector (the ECEC sector). The Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) requires certain people (including doctors, nurses, teachers, certain police officers and statutory office holders) to report suspected cases of child abuse to the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services. Those mandatory reporting requirements do not apply to the ECEC sector. The review will consider whether the mandatory reporting requirements under the Act should be expanded to apply to the ECEC sector, including long day care and family day care services and kindergartens. If the Commission recommends the expansion of the mandatory reporting requirements to the ECEC sector, the Commission must also make recommendations as to which professionals, office holders or workers within that sector should be subject to those requirements. See Related Content below for questions for discussion, terms of reference, and privacy statement

Review of the law relating to self-defence: issues paper

This issues paper examines possible changes to the law of self-defence in Tasmania, and invites submissions from the public. Background In September 2011, the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to the Attorney-General to raise concerns that the current Tasmanian law on self-defence, as contained in s 46 of the Criminal Code (Tas), was too lenient and was out of step with modern standards. In November 2012, the Attorney- General requested that the Tasmania Law Reform Institute conduct a far-reaching examination of the law in Tasmania relating to self-defence and provide advice as to whether the law should be amended. In relation to self-defence, this Issues Paper considers whether the current law of self-defence in Tasmania should be retained or whether any amendments should be made to the existing law. It considers the circumstances in which a person is lawfully entitled to use force (including lethal force) in defence of themselves or another person. In cases where the accused’s perception of the situation corresponds with the actual situation, this may appear a relatively intuitive and straightforward assessment. However, greater difficulties arise when there is a difference between the actual circumstances and the circumstances as the accused saw them. There is scope for considerable debate about the extent to which a person can rely on a mistaken belief for the purposes of self-defence, and whether the reason for the mistake has a role to play in making this assessment. This is the particular concern addressed in this Paper. It considers whether a person should be able to rely on: a mistake that results from a delusion arising from a mental illness; a mistake that was a result of psychological factors personal to the accused that meant that they were more sensitive to threats of danger than the normal person; or a mistake that arises from self-induced intoxication. The Paper also considers whether it is desirable to ensure consistency between the defence of selfdefence and other defences such as prevention of certain crimes and defence of dwelling-house. To this end, it examines issues that arise in relation to defence of property, and the special status the home enjoys as a place of sanctuary. It considers whether the defences of prevention of crime in s 39 and defence of dwelling-house in s 40 of the Criminal Code might more appropriately be dealt with in a consolidated defence provision or whether the defences involve unique considerations that warrant a stand-alone provision.   Submissions are invited from the public, find out more about making a submission here

The East Midlands: economy a joint response to changing economic circumstances

This document provides an assessment of the regional economy as the UK entered recession in 2008 and sets out how emda, local agencies and Government would work together to tackle the challenges posed by the recession

The prisoner's right to vote and civic responsibility: Reaffirming the social contract?

Copyright © 2009 NAPOThis article considers the issue of the prisoner’s right to vote in the light of recent developments in law and policy. It critically reviews the purported justifications for disenfranchisement and argues that re-enfranchisement should be pursued on the grounds of both principle and policy

The simplification of planning legislation

This paper describes a proposal to extend the scope of planning permission in Great Britain so as to include virtually any works to listed buildings and scheduled monuments, demolition in a conservation area, and advertising. That would enable the scrapping of the separate statutory codes governing listed building consent, conservation area consent, scheduled monument consent, and consent under the Advertisements Regulations

Overeducation across British regions

This paper analyses levels of over-education and wage returns to education for males across eleven regions of the UK using Labour Force Survey data. Significant differences are found in the probability of being over-educated across regions; also, differences are found in the return to the ‘correct’ level of education in each region, in each case associated with flexibility of movement between and into particular regions, which determines the ease of job matching. Furthermore, evidence is found that, after controlling for the level of education acquired, there exists a premium to the ‘correct’ level of education, which varies across UK regions

Supporting law students’ skills development online – a strategy to improve skills and reduce student stress?

Law students internationally suffer from a high level of psychological distress compared with the general and student populations, and anecdotal evidence suggests that students developing skills without adequate support experience significant stress and anxiety. This article considers an initiative at one Australian law school to develop a degree-wide structured online skills development programme as a means to both improve student skills acquisition and reduce student stress. The project implements, through the use of learning technology, the principles proposed by McKinney for making small changes to law school teaching, informed by self-efficacy theory, which can have powerful results

The spirit of sport: the case for criminalisation of doping in the UK

This article examines public perceptions of doping in sport, critically evaluates the effectiveness of current anti-doping sanctions and proposes the criminalisation of doping in sport in the UK as part of a growing global movement towards such criminalisation at national level. Criminalising doping is advanced on two main grounds: as a stigmatic deterrent and as a form of retributive punishment enforced through the criminal justice system. The ‘spirit of sport’ defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as being based on the values of ethics, health and fair-play is identified as being undermined by the ineffectiveness of existing anti-doping policy in the current climate of doping revelations, and is assessed as relevant to public perceptions and the future of sport as a whole. The harm-reductionist approach permitting the use of certain performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is considered as an alternative to anti-doping, taking into account athlete psychology, the problems encountered in containing doping in sport through anti-doping measures and the effect of these difficulties on the ‘spirit of sport’. This approach is dismissed in favour of criminalising doping in sport based on the offence of fraud. It will be argued that the criminalisation of doping could act as a greater deterrent than existing sanctions imposed by International Federations, and, when used in conjunction with those sanctions, will raise the overall ‘price’ of doping. The revelations of corruption within the existing system of self-governance within sport have contributed to a disbelieving public and it will be argued that the criminalisation of doping in sport could assist in satisfying the public that justice is being done and in turn achieve greater belief in the truth of athletic performances