Amnesty International (Author): “The State of the World's Human Rights; United Kingdom 2025”, Document #2139278

The government continued to use counterterror laws to restrict peaceful protests against the genocide in Gaza and ban the organization Palestine Action. Arms exports to Israel continued. The authorities intensified their hostile agenda to suppress asylum seekers’ and migrants’ rights in the UK. Racist and religious hate crimes remained prevalent. A Supreme Court decision greatly reduced the scope of legal gender recognition. Social security reforms pushed people into poverty, including people with disabilities.

Background

The government maintained its policy of retaining the Human Rights Act and remaining a member of the European Convention on Human Rights, but took a number of policy steps that sought to diminish the application of these human rights protections, particularly in relation to immigration and asylum. In September, the government introduced the welcomed “Hillsborough Law” Bill, which should increase accountability of state actors for victims of state-related deaths and disasters.

Freedom of expression and assembly

Police powers continued to be used against peaceful protests, particularly those against the genocide in Gaza. In January, the police arrested 73 peaceful protesters, including protest organizers and prominent politicians, for an alleged “breach of conditions” imposed by the police on a “Stop the Genocide” protest.

In February, the government published a new Crime and Policing Bill, which contained further powers for police to impose restrictions on protests based on the “cumulative disruption” of previous protests, as well the power to restrict protests in the vicinity of places of worship. Police were also to be given powers to ban face coverings at protests. The bill remained pending at year’s end.

In July, the government proscribed “Palestine Action” (PA) – a direct-action protest movement – as a terrorist organization. The government justified this on the basis of PA’s involvement in serious damage to property at arms manufacturing factories linked to Israel and at RAF Brize Norton, a UK air force base. Membership or “support” of a proscribed group continued to be a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act 2000. One of the co-founders of PA launched a judicial review of the decision to proscribe the group, arguing that this was a disproportionate interference with rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The case was heard in November, but no decision had been reached by year’s end.

Following the proscription, a widespread campaign of civil disobedience broke out led by the “Defend Our Juries” group. In a series of large-scale protests, peaceful protesters held signs stating, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. By the end of the year, over 2,700 arrests had been made and approximately 254 people had been charged, facing a maximum of six months in prison under section 13 of the Terrorism Act. ¹

A smaller number of protest organizers were arrested and charged under section 12 of the Terrorism Act, which criminalized organizing or participating in meetings in support of a proscribed organization. Prosecutors indicated that they would seek between six and nine years in prison for the perpetrators.

In September, the McCullough Review identified multiple cases of covert surveillance by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) against journalists and lawyers, including likely unlawful actions in breach of the Human Rights Act. This followed a December 2024 judgment by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that the PSNI and Metropolitan Police Service had breached the human rights of two journalists by conducting surveillance to reveal their sources.²

Irresponsible arms transfers

In July, the High Court dismissed a judicial review of UK policy on licensing arms exports to Israel, which had been filed by Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the Global Legal Action Network in December 2023. The claimants argued that the risk of weapons being used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, including genocide, met the threshold for stopping the sales. The court ruled that the decision regarding sales of arms to Israel was a matter for the government, not the courts.

In September, the First Minister of Scotland publicly recognized evidence that Israel was committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians. He announced that no new economic development grants would be given by Scotland to arms firms involved in Israel or any country plausibly suspected of genocide.

Refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Asylum seekers accommodated in hotels were subjected to sometimes violent protests. Immigration lawyers, judges and NGO workers were subjected to threats and intimidation, including targeted campaigns of disinformation by newspapers and politicians.

In August, the government made a deal with France permitting the UK to return to France people who had crossed the Channel to the UK using irregular routes. In return, the UK would receive from France an equal number of asylum seekers via an agreed legal route. The number transferred under these arrangements by year’s end was small.

In November, the government published plans to remove its duty to support people seeking asylum if they would otherwise be destitute and to refuse to consider permanent residence for refugees until at least 20 years after being granted asylum. The plans would restrict access to asylum and undermine the rights of refugees. The government suspended refugee family reunion and announced it would severely restrict access to refugee family reunion visas in future.

Also in November, the government published plans regarding how migrants could “earn” permanent residence in the UK. The plans would penalize people who had migrated to the UK on skilled worker visas but did not meet the “high income” threshold. Minimum periods of residence and work in the UK before applicants could be considered for permanent residence were extended from five to 10 years or more. The revisions would apply retrospectively to people already on the pathway to residency. Exemptions would favour wealthy migrants or those qualifying for exclusive “global talent” visas. Such people could apply after three or five years in the UK. Reliance on public funds or offences could delay or permanently bar applications.

In December, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 was passed increasing the government’s powers, including the prosecution and penalization of people seeking asylum. The stated aim of the legislation was the disruption of people smuggling operations.

Discrimination

The number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025 rose for the first time in three years, with reports that racism had been normalized across public discourse and life.

In October, the Royal College of Nursing reported a 55% rise in members facing racist abuse since 2022.

Sustained attacks on places of worship were reported. A total of 27 attacks on mosques occurred between July and October. Some attacks coincided with the “Raise the Colours” flag campaign in August, which was associated with anti-rights groups and protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers. In October, a synagogue in Manchester was targeted in an attack that led to the killing of two people.

In August, the PSNI revealed that there had been 1,329 race hate crimes recorded by the police year to date, 434 more than in the previous 12 months. The figures included widespread racist attacks in towns across Northern Ireland in June, which resulted in families from migrant and minoritized communities being forced from their homes.

Also in August, the government announced its decision to release nationality and ethnicity details of suspects in high-profile criminal cases, a decision fuelled by increased prejudice and racial discrimination.

Police forces continued to use automated algorithmic risk assessment tools and systems known as “predictive policing”, disproportionately targeting Black and racialized people and people from a lower socio-economic background, leading to violations of their human rights.³

LGBTI people’s rights

In April, the Supreme Court ruled that the definition of sex in the Equality Act should be understood as “biological sex” or sex assigned at birth, thus greatly reducing the scope of legal gender recognition. The court affirmed the right of transgender people to protection from discrimination and harassment. Following the judgment, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published non-binding interim advice, advising service providers to exclude transgender people from certain single-sex spaces. In some instances, the advice suggested that transgender people could be excluded from spaces that aligned with their sex at birth.

The EHRC then conducted a consultation on updating its statutory code of practice, which had not been presented to parliament by year’s end. Some companies and charities brought in harmful trans-exclusionary policies following the judgment.

Sexual and reproductive rights

In June, parliament passed an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to end criminal prosecutions of pregnant people who had an abortion outside the scope of the law in England and Wales. Abortion providers and those assisting with abortions would remain subject to criminalization, contrary to international standards. The bill was pending at the end of the year.

Obstacles to abortion care in Northern Ireland remained, including access to medical abortion, despite the commissioning of abortion services in 2022. Lack of early screening for fetal impairments continued to be a concern, contravening health standards and having significant repercussions for pregnant people’s rights to personal autonomy and health. Northern Ireland remained the only part of the UK where telemedicine was unavailable.

In February, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concluded that the UK had failed to comply with its international obligations, including to ensure the rights to food, housing and adequate social security.

Systemic failings of the social security system continued to push people deeper into poverty.⁴ In June, the government introduced a bill proposing changes to Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) aimed at saving GBP 5 billion. The government’s own impact assessment concluded that the measures would force an additional 250,000 people with disabilities into poverty. Following strong campaigning, some of the most harmful proposals of the bill were dropped pending a review. In August, a new bill passed into law introducing a two-tier social security entitlement, with lower payments for new claimants and requirements aimed at excluding people with fluctuating health conditions. In September, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and UN Special Rapporteurs on extreme poverty and disability rights condemned the legislation as regressive and incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In November, the government announced the abolition of the two-child limit for Universal Credit payments. Although this measure was expected to remove 450,000 children from poverty, concerns remained about its limited impact due to the failure to couple it with the removal of the benefits cap.

Impunity

In September, the UK and Irish governments adopted the “Joint Framework” to address the incompatibility of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 with international human rights obligations.

In October, the UK government published the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill to repeal and replace the widely opposed 2023 Legacy and Reconciliation Act and the draft Remedial Order. The latter sought to repeal the de facto amnesty scheme and lift the prohibition on civil claims, as ordered by the Belfast courts in the re Dillon and Ors case. The UK government’s appeal against this judgment was heard in the Supreme Court in October. The judgment remained pending.

In December, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers examined the McKerr v. United Kingdom cases. These cases concerned a failure to properly investigate cases relating to charges of abuses by UK security forces and the possibility that these failures had been exacerbated by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. The Committee of Ministers agreed to revisit the cases in 2026 as concerns over the Troubles Bill remained.