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Whitehall and the Human Rights Act 1998 by Jeremy Croft

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Whitehall and the Human Rights Act 1998 by Jeremy Croft Whitehall and the Human Rights Act 1998 by Jeremy Croft Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, UCL September 2000 £10.00 Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Executive Summary............................................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 1. Building a Human Rights Culture............................................................................................................... 10 1.1 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 16 2. Steering implementation of the Human Rights Act................................................................................. 17 2.1 The Whitehall Machinery .......................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 The role of the Home Office ....................................................................................................................... 20 2.3 Home Office Human Rights Task Force ................................................................................................... 22 2.4 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 27 3. The legal services’ preparations for the Human Rights Act .................................................................... 28 3.1 Is there a case for a central legal authority? ............................................................................................. 28 3.2 The ECHR before the Human Rights Act................................................................................................ 30 3.3 The legal machinery for the Human Rights Act...................................................................................... 32 3.4 Crown Prosecution Service......................................................................................................................... 34 3.5 ‘Kebilene’....................................................................................................................................................... 37 3.6 Declarations of incompatibility.................................................................................................................. 39 3.7 Pre-legislative scrutiny of laws .................................................................................................................. 40 3.8 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 43 4. The Lord Chancellor’s Department and the Judiciary.............................................................................. 43 4.1 Judicial attitudes towards the Human Rights Act................................................................................... 44 4.2 The role of the Lord Chancellor’s Department ........................................................................................ 48 4.3 Training judges............................................................................................................................................. 50 4.4 Giving reasons for decisions in Magistrates courts................................................................................. 52 4.5 Part-time judicial appointments................................................................................................................ 53 4.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 55 5. Preparations in Government Departments for the Human Rights Act.................................................. 56 5.1 Management processes .............................................................................................................................. 58 5.2 The Review of Legislation and Procedures............................................................................................. 59 5.3 Training ........................................................................................................................................................ 60 5.4 Public Authorities ....................................................................................................................................... 62 5.5 Case study: The Police and Customs and Excise.................................................................................... 63 5.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................... 68 6. Devolution and human rights...................................................................................................................... 69 6.1 Northern Ireland’s experience in applying the ECHR........................................................................... 72 6.2 Wales’ experience in applying the ECHR................................................................................................ 73 6.3 Scotland’s experience in applying the ECHR .......................................................................................... 74 2 6.4 Convention points raised as ‘devolution issues’ ..................................................................................... 75 6.5 Devolution and the future development of human rights in the UK................................................... 77 7. What happens when the Human Rights Act comes into force?.............................................................. 78 8. Future steps..................................................................................................................................................... 80 8.1 Amending the Human Rights Act? ........................................................................................................... 80 8.2 Additional Convention rights? .................................................................................................................. 81 8.3 A Human Rights Commission? ................................................................................................................. 82 8.4 Rights contained in other human rights treaties ..................................................................................... 82 8.5 A Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union.................................................................. 83 List of Annexes Annex A – Human Rights Unit flow chart. Annex B - ECHR Criminal Issues Group. Terms of reference. Annex C - ECHR Civil Litigation Group. Terms of reference. Annex D – Magistrates’ European Convention Decision Making Guide. Annex E – Police Force: Human Rights – Performance Audit Framework 3 Acknowledgements The project relied primarily on interviews and information from a large number of serving civil servants whose assistance has been greatly appreciated even if it is not acknowledged by name. I am grateful for the comments and views of Jonathan Cooper and Ann Owers (Justice), Sarah Spencer and Frances Butler (IPPR), Francesca Klug (Human Rights Act Research Project) and Sarah Cooke (British Institute of Human Rights). Professor Spencer Zifcak (Latrobe) offered a valuable overseas perspective as well as moderating a Constitution Unit seminar in June 2000 bringing together key players in the preparation process for the Human Rights Act. Constitution Unit colleagues who helped with aspects of the project and commented on drafts were: Richard Cornes, Dylan Griffiths, Elizabeth Haggett, Robert Hazell and Roger Masterman. 4 Whitehall and the Human Rights Act 1998 Executive Summary The Human Rights Act, which came into full force on 2 October 2000, is a major development in the legal and constitutional history of the United Kingdom that will reach into every area and activity of Government. The Act forms an important part of the Government’s constitutional reform programme. Its political drive is drawn from that programme and is subject to the ebbs and flows in political commitment to the Government’s constitutional agenda. The Human Rights Act is also intended to serve as the basis for a new ‘human rights culture’ in the UK. The Government is seeking to establish a culture based on communitarian principles in which the rights of individuals are balanced by their responsibilities to society. Questions are raised, from a human rights perspective, over the Government’s apparent intention to build such a culture based on the relatively narrow band of civil and political rights covered by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The implementation of the Human Rights Act is being treated as a major undertaking in Whitehall. The intention is to mainstream its requirements in every branch of Government, public authority and private body with public functions. The Government does not intend to give human rights paramount status above other considerations in policy formulation, decision taking and law making. There will be no single central authority (‘Justice
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