All posts tagged: mandatory

Humanists UK welcomes Government plans for mandatory reporting of child sex abuse 

Humanists UK welcomes Government plans for mandatory reporting of child sex abuse 

Published by skeptic

Yesterday the UK Government announced its intention to introduce mandatory reporting of child sex abuse, including making it a criminal offence to fail to report such abuse. Humanists UK, which leads the campaign to close illegal faith schools, welcomes this as a significant step forward in safeguarding children and young people, including those trapped in unregistered schools. In 2021 the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found widespread instances of sexual abuse in illegal schools. Humanists UK responded to the previous Conservative Government’s consultation on mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, warning that religious groups must not be exempted from legislation. IICSA’s Chair, Professor Alexis Jay, recommended that all adults working with children, or in a position of trust with children in either a faith or sports setting, and members of the Police, should be subjected to the new duty. Action is long overdue to protect victims of child sexual abuse. The first consultation on legislation to introduce mandatory reporting by the Government was held back in 2016. In her statement to MPs the …

Canoo reportedly puts staff on ‘mandatory unpaid break’ for weeks

Canoo reportedly puts staff on ‘mandatory unpaid break’ for weeks

Published by skeptic

Canoo is having a very unmerry Christmas. Remaining employees of the beleaguered U.S. electric vehicle startup have been placed on a “mandatory unpaid break” according to TechCrunch, with no view to return for a few weeks at minimum.  While it isn’t uncommon for businesses to close around the end of the year, Canoo’s decision to put staff on break from Monday is unlikely to be driven by holiday cheer. The company has been plagued by financial problems and furloughs, resorting to borrowing millions from CEO Tony Aquila‘s private equity firm AFV Management Advisors in order to stay afloat. SEE ALSO: Canoo unveils electric pickup truck that’s way smaller than the Tesla Cybertruck According to EV, staff were notified of the mandatory break via email last Friday, and told they would receive further updates to their personal email addresses in the first week of January. Employees’ access to Canoo’s system was apparently suspended by close of business the same day. “We apologize for the timing of this message,” Canoo’s email read, as sighted by EV. “Please …

NSS calls for mandatory reporting law after CofE abuse coverup

NSS calls for mandatory reporting law after CofE abuse coverup

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society has called on the justice secretary to introduce a mandatory duty to report known or suspected child abuse. The NSS, which has long supported mandatory reporting (MR), wrote to Shabana Mahmood in the wake of the Makin review, which was published earlier this month. The review revealed sadistic abuse perpetrated by CofE lay reader John Smyth against over 100 boys and young men in the UK, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Senior officials in the Church were made of aware of the abuse in the 1980s, but buried the report instead of alerting police. The archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who resigned following the publication of the review, was made aware of the abuse in 2013. Welby failed to ensure the abuse was formally reported to police. The review said senior CofE clergy showed “a distinct lack of curiosity” and a “tendency towards minimisation of the matter”. A police investigation of Smyth only began when the abuse was revealed by Channel 4 News four years later. Crossbench peer Tanni Grey-Thompson introduced a …

Make accreditation mandatory for low-carbon heating installers, says Which? | Heat pumps

Make accreditation mandatory for low-carbon heating installers, says Which? | Heat pumps

Published by skeptic

The next government should force all tradespeople who install home heat pumps, solar panels and insulation to sign up to a mandatory accreditation scheme to counter mistrust in the industry, a leading consumer group is demanding. A report from Which? found that households face “significant anxiety” in choosing tradespeople to fit low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and insulation after “press stories about poor work and rogue traders”. It said 45% of households report that they do not know what qualifications to check for when selecting a tradesperson to carry out work in their homes, and 55% find it difficult to trust the available information, including contractors’ own claims and customer reviews. The lack of clear information and quality controls threatened to delay home upgrades that were essential if Britain was to wean households off fossil fuel heating and hit its climate targets, the consumer group said. Under current rules, installers who undertake work through the government’s boiler upgrade and energy efficiency schemes must sign up to either the Microgeneration certification scheme or the …

Mandatory Christian worship has no place in modern education

Mandatory Christian worship has no place in modern education

Published by skeptic

The recent High Court ruling upholding Michaela Community School’s decision to restrict Muslim students’ prayer rituals brings into question the legal obligation on all schools to provide Christian worship. The law requiring all English state funded schools to hold daily collective acts of ‘broadly Christian’ worship have been on the statute books for 80 years. Similar laws exist in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It should by now be obvious to all that these archaic laws need to be scrapped. Those responsible for running schools would certainly like to see the law abolished. New polling commissioned by the National Secular Society has revealed that more than two in three senior leaders in state schools do not support a law which requires daily acts of collective worship in school. A remarkable 70% of senior leaders disagree with a law they are obliged to uphold. This probably accounts for the high rate of non-compliance. In a separate 2022 Teacher Tapp poll of over 7,600 teachers in state funded schools in England, 66% said they did not hold …

Expert on abuse law: mandatory reporting proposals “lack teeth”

Expert on abuse law: mandatory reporting proposals “lack teeth”

Published by skeptic

Government proposals to introduce mandatory reporting (MR) of child sexual abuse “lack teeth” and should be abandoned and replaced with much stronger laws, an expert on abuse law has said. Richard Scorer, head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater Gordon and vice president of the National Secular Society, said the lack of criminal penalties for non-reporting meant the proposals were not MR “in any meaningful sense”. Organisations which had covered up abuse – including religious groups – are “unlikely to be troubled” by the proposed law, he said, although he welcomed the fact there was “no confessional exemption for religious groups”. Scorer said the proposals should be replaced with a law that “can prevent cover up of the kind we have seen happen so extensively in religious settings”. Lobbying for religious exemptions to mandatory reporting The government published legislative proposals to introduce MR earlier this week following a public consultation last year. In its response to the consultation, the NSS said there should be no religious exemptions to MR, including abuse revealed during …

Single-sex toilets mandatory in new bars, restaurants and offices under proposed laws | UK News

Single-sex toilets mandatory in new bars, restaurants and offices under proposed laws | UK News

Published by skeptic

Single-sex toilets are set to become a legal requirement for all new bars, restaurants, offices and shopping centres under new laws proposed by the government. Self-contained toilets for both sexes may be provided in addition to single-sex toilets, or if there isn’t enough space. Care homes, hotels, schools, cells in custodial facilities, and buildings used for early years provision are all exempt from the proposed legislation. The law would affect England only and applies to new buildings as well as existing premises that undergo a material change of use. The government said that in a consultation on the proposals, 81% of respondents agreed “with the intention for separate single-sex toilet facilities” while 82% “agreed with the intention to provide universal toilets where space allows”. It said that women, the elderly and disabled people said they felt “unfairly disadvantaged” by gender-neutral toilets “where users share cubicle and hand-washing facilities”.  “This leads to increasing waiting in shared queues, decreased choice and less privacy and dignity,” the government said. Minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch claimed the …

Mandatory evacuations ordered in Texas after heavy rain and floods

Mandatory evacuations ordered in Texas after heavy rain and floods

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Mandatory evacuations were ordered in parts of Texas, and residents in Harris County, home to Houston, were told to be ready to stay put for days after heavy rain caused flooding. Harris County Judge Linda Hidalgo, the top executive of the county government, issued a disaster declaration Thursday. Mandatory evacuations were ordered along the East Fork of the San Jacinto River, and residents were urged to leave before nightfall. “What we’re going to see tonight and into the weekend will not be Hurricane Harvey, but we are going to see significant impacts,” Hidalgo said in a statement. High water flows into Vernons Kuntry Katfish off FM 105 on Thursday in Conroe, Texas.Kirk Sides / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images “At this time, folks in the impacted area should either prepare to stay where they are for the next 2-3 days or leave,” she said. The American Red Cross of the Texas Gulf Coast opened shelters, and the National Weather Service warned drivers to beware, especially at night. A section of the highway U.S. 59 in …

UCLA Students Forced To Take Mandatory ‘Fat Positivity’ Class

UCLA Students Forced To Take Mandatory ‘Fat Positivity’ Class

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Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news, UCLA medical school is under fire for forcing students to attend ‘health equity’ classes where ‘fat positivity’ is promoted, and reading material claims that the medical term ‘obesity’ is a slur “used to exact violence on fat people.” Yes, really. The Washington Free Beacon obtained the  entire syllabus for the mandatory course, titled Structural Racism and Health Equity, which one medical expert who has reviewed it describes as “education designed to ideologically indoctrinate physician-activists.” As part of the required course, all first year medical students are made to read an essay by ‘fat liberationist’ Marquisele Mercedes (pictured), who uses made up terms like “fatphobia” to argue that the medical profession is biased against fat people, and that trying to lose weight to be more healthy is a “hopeless endeavor” because it is a disability that cannot be reversed. ‘Pedagogical Malpractice’: Inside UCLA Medical School’s Mandatory ‘Health Equity’ Classhttps://t.co/lucuX8hFbM — Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 24, 2024 The essay titled ‘No Health, No Care: The Big Fat Loophole in the Hippocratic Oath,’ claims that weight has …

Is there a downside to mandatory reporting laws meant to protect children? : Shots

Is there a downside to mandatory reporting laws meant to protect children? : Shots

Published by skeptic

Sean Justice/Getty Images Sean Justice/Getty Images More than 60 years ago, policymakers in Colorado embraced the idea that early intervention could prevent child abuse and save lives. The state’s requirement that certain professionals tell officials when they suspect a child has been abused or neglected was among the first mandatory reporting laws in the nation. Since then, mandatory reporting laws have expanded nationally to include more types of maltreatment — including neglect, which now accounts for most reports — and have increased the number of professions required to report. In some states, all adults are required to report what they suspect may be abuse or neglect. But now there are efforts in Colorado and other states – including New York and California — to roll back these laws, saying the result has been too many unfounded reports, and that they disproportionately harm families that are poor, Black, or Indigenous, or have members with disabilities. “There’s a long, depressing history based on the approach that our primary response to a struggling family is reporting,” says Mical …