Michael Zander QC considers an interesting contribution to the debate on scrapping the Human Rights Act
The Conservative Party Manifesto for the 2015 election included a commitment to “scrap the Human Rights Act and introduce a British Bill of Rights”. On 8 September, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Mr Dominic Raab, told the House of Commons that the government would bring forward proposals “in the autumn”. On 3 November, Mr Jonathan Fisher QC, who was the Conservative party’s nominee on the coalition government’s Bill of Rights Commission, spoke to Politiae about what those proposals should contain.
Be bold
The government, he said, should be bold. “The UK Bill of Rights must be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, but its terms should not be replicated”. The Bill of Rights should protect such basic British values as the right to trial by jury in serious criminal cases, the right to silence, the right to claim privilege against self-incrimination, the right to present a writ of habeas corpus, the right to equality, and freedom from discrimination. It should include a right to data
