In Depth:  CARE

The Scottish Government dropped its controversial plans to appoint a state guardian for every young person in Scotland, it was announced in September.

In a statement, Education Secretary John Swinney told the Scottish Parliament that the Government would repeal the Named Person elements in the ‘Children and Young People Act 2014,’ when a suitable legislative vehicle could be identified.

Places of worship across Northern Ireland have been subject to nearly 450 recorded attacks over the last three years, prompting calls for immediate action to protect churches and other religious buildings.

Following a freedom of information request, CARE NI revealed that there were 445 crimes recorded as criminal damage to religious buildings, churchyards or cemeteries in Northern Ireland across the 11 policing districts in the last three years.

The police are currently investigating a record number of modern slavery cases involving children, according to a report released on May 22.

Under the Modern Slavery Act, the number of ‘live’ police investigations involving children has surged alarmingly from 53 in 2017 to 475 in 2019 – an increase of 796%.

The Government is wilfully ignoring public opposition to its changes to divorce law across England and Wales, which would see the introduction of ‘no reason’ divorce.

80% of those who responded to the public consultation do not agree with the Government’s proposal to replace the ‘five facts’ system with a ‘notification’ process, while a mere 17% were in favour.

In February, The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) will poll its 35,000 members on assisted suicide.

It will ask if members think assisted suicide should become legal in the UK, and if doctors would be prepared to ‘participate actively’ in assisted suicide if the law was changed.

A call was made for greater recognition of the right to freedom of religion and belief in evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities and Human Rights Committee on 26 April.

Giving oral evidence to the Committee, Dr Gordon Macdonald said that a duty of reasonable adjustment already exists in relation to disability, and a similar duty should apply in relation to religion and belief in order to protect religious liberties.

Over 550 MPs were contacted by the public to urge them to support the Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill, it was reported in February.

Currently the Bill is stuck in the House of Lords. It needs the government to give it a time slot to be debated there before it can pass to the next stage.

A major new survey has warned that children are at risk of becoming desensitised to online pornography because they are watching so much of it that an entire generation risks being robbed of their childhoods.

The survey, carried out by Middlesex University, was jointly commissioned by the NSPCC and the children’s commissioner for England and showed that around 53% of 11-16 year olds had seen graphic porn content online and 94% of them had viewed adult content by the time they were just 14 years old.

The British Medical Association (BMA) will remain officially opposed to assisted suicide after an attempt to force the association into a neutral position on the issue failed in June.

A motion (No.80) had been tabled by the South Central Regional Council at the BMA’s annual representatives meeting, calling for the BMA to move to a position of neutrality on assisted suicide. Following a vote, the motion was comprehensively defeated after 198 delegates, some 63%, opposed the motion while 115 voted in favour of it.

The latest attempt to liberalise the current law and introduce assisted suicide has been comprehensively defeated in the Commons on Friday 11 September.

The Assisted Dying Bill (No 2) was soundly rejected by MPs at Second Reading with 330 MPs voting against the legislation and 118 voting in favour.

A vital part of Northern Ireland’s robust anti-trafficking laws came into force 1 June as paying for sex became a criminal offence.

The measure means Northern Ireland will join countries such as Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Canada in making the purchase of sexual services illegal.

CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) launched in January a new election website www.engaGE15.org.uk which aims to support Christians as they choose for whom to vote in the 7 May general election.

CARE believes the Christian vote will matter more than ever at this election, especially as the opinion polls continually show how close the election is going to be. They believe how Christians vote and in what numbers will have a significant bearing on the overall result. A spokesperson for CARE said: ‘Christians are especially concerned about traditional marriage and the protection of the family, and issues such as human trafficking and assisted suicide so CARE’s new website will provide up-to-date resources to help the Church engage with these topics. The site has a database of MPs voting habits, dynamic video content and a regularly updated election blog, as well as a hustings guide and a guide to chairing a hustings’.

The Christian charity CARE published new polling on July 18 demonstrating that those who support assisted suicide in principle switch to opposition when presented with the reality of assisted suicide in practice.

The polling shows that the level of support for assisted suicide rapidly dwindles from 73% to 43% overall when evidence is offered about the nature or source of opposition to assisted suicide. Opposition to assisted suicide therefore increases from 12% to 43% with 14% in the ‘don’t know’ category.