James Robottom examines the UK Bill of Rights process
The words of the Conservative Party 2015 Manifesto were clear enough: the next Conservative government will scrap the Human Rights Act, and introduce a British Bill of Rights.
By the time of the Queen’s speech on 27 May, however, it was clear that any “scrapping” was to be delayed. The speech contained only the rather watered down promise from Her Majesty that the government would “bring forward proposals for a British Bill of Rights”.
In the House of Commons on 8 September Dominic Raab, parliamentary under-secretary for justice, stated proposals for a Bill of Rights would be brought forward in the autumn, but refused “to be drawn on the substance and detail”.
Nothing more was then heard for some time. On 4 November Harriett Harman, appointed chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, wrote to Minister of Justice Michael Gove with five questions that highlighted the complete lack of information available on the proposals. They included whether the UK is to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention); whether it
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