Events from 2015 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Incumbent

Events

January

*4 January – The '' Höegh Osaka'', a Singaporean cargo ship transporting luxury cars, runs aground near the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

after it started listing shortly after leaving the

Port of Southampton The Port of Southampton is a passenger and cargo port in the central part of the south coast of England. The modern era in the history of the Port of Southampton began when the first dock was inaugurated in 1843. The port has been owned and op ...

. An investigation is launched. *6 January – Figures from the last three months show that England's A&E waiting time performance has dropped to its worst levels for a decade. *9 January – Circle Holdings, the first private company to operate an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

hospital, announces plans to withdraw from its contract to run

Hinchingbrooke Hospital Hinchingbrooke Hospital is a small district general hospital in Hinchingbrooke near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Opened in 1983, it serves the Huntingdonshire area, and has a range of specialities as well as an emergency department and a materni ...

because it believes the franchise is "no longer viable under current terms". *12 January – 19-year-old Lewis Daynes who murdered 14-year-old

Breck Bednar Breck David LaFave Bednar (17 March 1999 – 17 February 2014) was an English teenager of American descent from Caterham, Surrey, who was murdered by 18-year-old Lewis Daynes on 17 February 2014, at Daynes' flat in Grays, Essex. Bednar knew Day ...

after meeting him online in February 2014, is sentenced to life in prison. *15 January – A set of council offices, a funeral parlour, and a thatched cottage are extensively damaged after they are set ablaze due to a spate of

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

attacks in

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...

. A suspect is arrested. *17 January – Andrew Main, 47, of Rokemarsh,

Roke Roke is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, about north of Wallingford. It has a sixteenth-century public house, the Home Sweet Home. It is now included in the neighbouring civil parish of Berrick Salome Berrick Salome is a village and civil ...

, Wallingford, faces arson charges, one of which is intent to endanger life after spate of fires in Oxfordshire. A fire on lorry forces

channel tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

to be closed in both directions. *28 January – An

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

of magnitude 3.8 is felt across the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

. *31 January – The head of the

Police Federation of England and Wales The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors and special constables in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. Under UK lab ...

expresses his controversial support for all front-line police officers in England and Wales to be offered

Tasers A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...

in light of the increased terrorism threat to the UK.

February

*2 February –

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's population hits a record high of 8.6m and is forecast to reach 11m by 2050. *4 February – The entire cabinet of

Rotherham Borough Council Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan countie ...

announces its intention to resign from office after a report into the

Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consisted of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until the 2010s and the failure of local authorities to a ...

concludes the council's handling of the scandal was "not fit for purpose".

July

*27 July – Members of the

Norwich sexual abuse ring In 2010, police received a report of a child sex abuse ring in Norwich, England. The recurring crimes spanned 10 years and all victims, two boys and three girls, were younger than 13. The perpetrators organized sex parties where adults played card ...

are found guilty of the sexual abuse of children, with the crimes spanning a decade. Ringleader Marie Black is convicted of 23 counts of sex abuse, including rape.

September

*28 September – Members of a

are jailed for "utterly depraved" sex abuse of children over a period of ten years. Ringleader Marie Black received the longest sentence of

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

, with a minimum term of 24 years.

Deaths

*26 June – Denis Thwaites, 70, footballer (

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

), victim of the

2015 Sousse attacks On 26 June 2015, a mass shooting occurred at the tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, about 10 kilometres north of the city of Sousse, Tunisia. Thirty-eight people, 30 of whom were British, were killed when a gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui, attacked a ...

. *19 December –

Greville Janner Greville Ewan Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, (11 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was a British politician, barrister and writer. He became a Labour Party Member of Parliament for Leicester in the 1970 general election as a last-minute ...

, Labour MP and lawyer (b. 1928)

References

{{England year nav , state=collapsed *England Years of the 21st century in England 2010s in England