News Bulletin 20 January 2012

Civil liberties organisation ‘Index on Censorship’, has added its support to amending Section 5 of the Public Order Act with Mike Harris saying, it was not the role of police officers or magistrates to protect citizens from insult — In a parliamentary debate on ‘Care for the Dying’, David Burrowes MP has called for the need to improve palliative care for the terminally ill, but cautioned against attempts to legislate in favour of assisted suicide — The use of ‘Sharia courts’ is on the increase in Britain, but Tehmina Kazi, director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, says she backs Lady Cox Bill to tackle discrimination suffered by Muslim women under Sharia law — Two Roman Catholic midwives have taken their employers to court, claiming their conscientious objection to abortion has been ignored — GP surgeries in the North West of England will be judged on how ‘gay-friendly’ they are to patients, in a new scheme backed by the NHS — And the number of weddings taking place in the Church of England has seen its biggest annual increase for a decade.