Reappointed Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab’s Bill of Rights Bill is set to be reintroduced for parliamentary consideration under Rishi Sunak, according to reports, after previous prime minister Liz Truss scrapped its launch.
Raab initially introduced the Bill under Boris Johnson’s tenure as Prime Minister whom he previously served as Lord Chancellor under. The Bill aims to give UK courts dominion over domestic human rights matters, which the European Court of Human Rights currently maintains.
This would give UK courts the final say over human rights rulings with no rights to appeal. This has previously blocked UK human rights issues such as plans last June to fly migrants to Rwanda.
The Bill would also make it more difficult for foreign national criminals challenging deportations and introduce a new permission stage for human rights challenges.
Raab previously told ITV news that the measure would “reinject a healthy dose of common sense to the system and end abuse of our laws”. Raab has now stated the Bill is set to return for parliament voting “in the coming weeks”.
However, the plans have faced serious criticism, such as from previous Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, who has described the plans as “worse than useless” as he stated in the Spectator:
“It threatens spawning a whole range of domestic rights which I think really sit ill with the English common law tradition. We already have the likes of [Labour MP] Stella Creasy saying ‘I want a right to abortion, so I’m going to amend the bill’. All these things suddenly become a political headache.
It’s a real problem for people like me, who want to just keep the ‘rights culture’ under control.”
