Legislative Scrutiny: Bill of Rights Bill

Background On 22 June 2022 the Bill of Rights Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons. The Bill, if enacted, would repeal and replace the Human Rights Act 1998. The introduction of the Bill of Rights follows: a 2019 manifesto commitment to “update” the Human Rights Act; the Independent Human Rights Act … Show more

Background On 22 June 2022 the Bill of Rights Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons. The Bill, if enacted, would repeal and replace the Human Rights Act 1998. The introduction of the Bill of Rights follows: a 2019 manifesto commitment to “update” the Human Rights Act; the Independent Human Rights Act Review; two previous inquiries by this Committee; and the Government’s public consultation exercise which elicited over 12,000 responses. The Bill of Rights Although the Government has confirmed the UK will stay party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Bill of Rights would make significant changes to the Human Rights landscape in the UK. Clause 1 of the Bill states that the Bill “clarifies and re-balances the relationship between courts in the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights and Parliament.” Our inquiry On 30 June 2022 the Committee wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, the Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP setting out our preliminary analysis of the Bill of Rights (available here ). The Committee will continue to conduct legislative scrutiny of the Bill of Rights and produce a report in due course. Help inform our work Read the initial call for evidence for more detail about the inquiry. In addition to calling for written evidence from people wishing to respond to the questions set out in the terms of reference, the Committee has also set up an online survey to hear a wider range of views on the Bill of Rights Bill. Link to the online survey can be found here . Show less