Human Rights Act review

The UK’s departure from the European Convention on Human Rights will not be considered in the upcoming review of the Human Rights Act. Former Court of Appeal judge Sir Peter Gross leading the independent review has announced that the UK will remain a signatory.

The review, which was announced at the end of last year is to examine how far UK courts are following recent decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Under the Human Rights Act 1998, UK judges are only obliged to ‘take into consideration’ the ECtHR’s rulings. The review is set to evaluate this duty and whether it is taking power and independence away from UK courts.

In addition, the review will determine how far the Human Rights Act is affecting the relationship between each of the ‘tripartite’ branches of government. In the past, some have criticised the Act for drawing courts into making judgements on matters of policy and not law and re-writing or amending Acts of Parliament, acting in ’ultra vires’ or beyond their powers.

Previous Conservative governments have expressed wishes to replace the act with a new ‘Bill of Rights’ but this will not be dealt with in the review either.

Sir Peter Gross has expressed a desire to include a panel reflecting the ‘widest range’ of reviews in a report expected to be published in the summer.

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