@stewbits22 8 March 2022 more from that month

The UK government is planning on a Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act. The proposal makes chilling reading and I have sent a letter raising my concerns about the individual parts of it. If you are in the UK today is the last day to make your opinion known to the following email address: hrareform@justice.gov.uk Here is a copy of my letter To whom it may concern, I am writing to you to express my concern that efforts being made to change human rights legislation is to make it easier to allow governments to force through measures that take freedoms from people that required enormous effort and planning during Covid. Emergency legislation to force vaccinate key workers and many others was a highly unethical move based on MP's non professional knowledge rather than relying on medical professionals and long term testing. There are various criminal cases making their way through the courts now to hold the government and individuals to account for their actions and I worry that this reform act will further erode essential freedoms. In particular there are several sections that cause me concern. The proposal of a permission stage: Claimants would have to show they have suffered significant disadvantage before a claim is even heard. This is taking liberties away from individuals and giving power to appointed administrators over their claims. The scope of positive obligations would be diminished. There are many vulnerable people in society especially in institutions who cannot defend their rights. The current Act holds the government repsonsible for upholding those rights. The reform would pass the buck to the individual who might be being mistreated or neglected and there would be no process to protect him. Society could be given more rights than the individual This broad and generalised term actually takes away rights from the individual and allows the government to abuse those rights if it decides the rights of society take precedence and government decides on its own what those are. A persons right to rights could be judged by the court. This statement on its own is quite shocking. If the court does not like a claimants past behaviour then it can decide not to hear a case. I would take it as self evident that this is abhorrent and can only lead to a really dark future of no rights and rule by tyrants. There are also procedural matters that are concerning. Judicial amendments will not be allowed unless in line with the will of Parliament. This eliminates the essential checks and balances of the executive branch and legislative. Poorly thought out legislation by politicians will stand giving judges no discretion in dealing with cases. This is a power grab by politicians and weakens democracy. Removal of the ability to quash Statutory Instruments. This gives the Secretary of State enormous power to enact legislation without proper parliamentary scrutiny and he can knowingly and quickly enact legislation that contradicts Human Rights with no process to overturn it. The proposed Bill of Rights would not underpin current legislation as The Human Rights Act Does Government can enact legislation that could potentially allow state actors to use torture or other practices prohibited under Human Rights but there would be no such protection under the current proposal. There has been no discussion on these potential gaps in the legislation in the proposed reforms. I quote here a very concerning example: The most recent example of this is the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Act. Many members of both Houses fought to have amendments added to the Bill that would have expressly prohibited the use of torture and committing crimes such as rape and murder. However the Government insisted that it was unnecessary to add them to the Bill as the HRA prohibits them and would underpin the Act. However if the Government does away with the Human Rights Act and instead replaces it with a Bill of Rights which states that an individuals rights can be overridden for ‘broader needs of society’ or if the investigated persons behaviour is considered lesser than, does that mean a covert human intelligence source can use torture to garner information from them? The Government gives no consideration or assurances on how it plans to deal with this matter and this means that much legislation could be left with gaping holes in it leading to even more Human Rights abuses with no recourse available to the individual. These sorts of oversights are highly concerning and do not encourage trust in the Government or it’s plans of refor There is also opposition from the Welsh and Scottish governments who have sent their concerns to the Lord Chancellor. I hope by adding my voice to the mounting concern over these proposed reforms that this reform can be stopped in its entirety for the naked power grab it is by government over the people. Yours sincerely