Changes to name suppression laws

The government has announced plans to implement the recommendations of the Law Commission to change the laws around name suppression. In summary:

• Name suppression will be harder to get, with applicants having to prove extreme hardship to qualify.
• There will be more protection for the identities of child witnesses and victims.
• Penalties for breaches will increase.
• Rules will be applied more consistently across the court system.
• Internet service providers will be obliged to take down or block access to material breaching an order that is hosted on their systems. (Tech Liberty describes this as another attempt by government to force ISPs to censor the internet.)

A bill is expected to be submitted to Parliament before the end of the year.