UK Asylum appeals
inconsistent
AROUND THREE QUARTERS of claims for asylum in the UK are currently refused although applicants have a right of appeal. However, asylum appeal processes are inconsistent and differ according to where an appeal is heard and the gender of the judge and asylum seeker, finds research into asylum determination procedures. Findings from a three-year study identify considerable differences between the 13 hearing centres where asylum applicants’ appeals are heard, and significant inconsistencies in the practice of judges who decide appeals.
A key difference between hearing centres is the frequency with which appellants can obtain legal representation, varying from 6% to over a quarter among the hearing centres that formed the basis of the study. When researchers watched judges to determine how frequently they undertook certain best practices, they found that judges adhered to 13 observed best practices only around half of the time on average. “We advocate a clear, accessible online introduction to the hearing in a variety of languages that appellants can watch beforehand, as well as increased independent, external monitoring and assessment of practice in hearings, greater communication between hearing centres and enhanced training for judges,” says Professor Nick Gill. n
i
Contact Professor Nick Gill, University of Exeter Email
n.m.gill@
exeter.ac.uk Telephone 01392 723333 ESRC Grant Number ES/J023426/1
Cyber threat is making everyone less secure
THE CYBER THREAT to nuclear weapons is real and growing, suggests new research into the challenge posed by information warfare and cyber weapons to the safe and secure command and control of nuclear forces. “Cyber threats are revolutionising the nuclear order and creating a host of new problems, vulnerabilities and risks,” says researcher Dr Andrew Futter. The safe, secure and reliable management of nuclear weapons has always been a complicated business, plagued by uncertainty and risks, Dr Futter points out. But these challenges are being magnified and aggravated by new cyber tools, dynamics and capabilities, and from the threat posed by hackers, seeing to gain access to, or interfere with, nuclear systems. Defining ‘cyber threat’ is in itself problematic. “At present, there’s a lot of hype and misunderstanding particularly around the term cyber- attack which can be interpreted as anything from spam emails to sabotage, destruction and possibly war,” he explains. Lack of consensus on the scope and challenge of cyber underpins much of the current
8 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2017
disagreement about the level and nature of the threat. He says that as cyber threats increase then everybody in the world will become less secure. Terrorist threat aside, even ever increasing software and coding complexity increases the likelihood of accidents. People may believe, for example, that nuclear submarines are invulnerable but everything that relies on computer coding can never be 100% secure. “At present we seem to be marching
towards a new era of instability and insecurity. Cyber is exacerbating problems already inherent in nuclear systems as well as creating new concerns. Now is the time to recognise the problems that will arise in a world where nuclear weapons will always remain vulnerable and consider how far such weapons continue to represent a viable means of security,” he says. n
i Contact Dr Andrew Futter, University
of Leicester Email
ajf57@le.ac.uk Web
www2.le.ac.uk/departments/politics/ people/afutter Telephone 0116 252 2703 ESRC Grant Number ES/K008838/1
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