David Lloyd Lloyd Jones

"This scoping consultation paper does the following: proposes solutions to the most pressing problems with the law regulating the possession and acquisition of firearms; examines whether more fundamental reform of the law is necessary; and provides some examples of issues that could be addressed in such an exercise"--Page iii.

"This consultation paper addresses: the aggravated offences under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, and the case for extending them to create offences involving hostility on the grounds of disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity. Particular reference is made also to the enhanced sentencing provisions under the Criminal Justice Act 2003; the stirring up of hatred offences under the Public Order Act 1986, and the case for extending them to include hatred on the grounds of disability and transgender identity"--Page iii.

This Consultation Paper analyses various issues in charity law and makes provisional proposals that the law should be reformed. Charities occupy a special place in society and in law. They exist for the benefit of the public: it is a fundamental principle that, for an institution to be a charity, its purposes must be exclusively charitable. Charities come in all shapes and sizes, and their aims range from focusing on local issues to a nationwide or global sphere of interest. There are approximately 180,000 charities in England and Wales registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, with a combined annual income of nearly £65 billion. The importance of charities is reflected by the significant donations made to them each year; charitable giving by individuals in the United Kingdom in the financial year 2012/13 was estimated to have been £10.4 billion. Charities have an important role and law should both protect and properly regulate them. The project is intended to further these objectives by removing unnecessary regulation while safeguarding the public interest in ensuring that charities are properly run.

Infringement litigation can be disruptive and expensive. The mere threat that a product infringes patent, trade mark or design rights may cause significant commercial damage to a business. But the law provides protection to businesses if that threat is groundless. The groundless threat provisions were introduced in the nineteenth century to resolve disputes about steam engines. The Commission believes that they need to be adapted to the new global battles over information technology and is consulting on how they can be brought up to date. The Commission is consulting on two approaches to reform. The first is to build on the reforms made to patent law in 2004 and to extend these to the other rights. The Commission also proposes that legal advisers should be protected from liability for groundless threats. The second approach is to treat groundless threats as a form of unfair competition and to introduce a new and broader cause of action based on the Paris Convention.