The Human Rights Act Government Consultation

The Government’s Human Rights Act (HRA) consultation closes on 8 March.  It proposes major changes to the HRA’s operations. PLP’s is convening two expert panels to discuss the reform proposals, and how they will affect people in Wales using the HRA to enforce their rights and hold public bodies to account.

Who is this for? 

This event is for anyone who wants to feed into the consultation, especially those engaged with people’s rights, their enforcement and Government accountability.  This could include

• Civil society organisations
• Charities and NGOS
• Government and the justice system
• Lawyers especially those concerned with people’s rights and rights enforcement
• Policy people and those involved in relevant research

10.00 – 11:30 The Human Rights Act in Wales 

The panel will consider the unique challenges and opportunities for Wales in this consultation, particularly

• How the HRA has been used in Wales to improve human rights
• How reform of the HRA may affect the work of Welsh administrative justice mechanisms like ombudsmen and commissioners and
• The importance of Welsh efforts to implement international human rights treaties though domestic legislation.

It will further consider proposed reform of section 2 of the HRA, the duty to take into account Strasbourg case law, and how this might affect cases of crucial importance to Wales, in welfare reform, discrimination and children’s rights

Nick Bennett,

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

Rhian Davies, Disability Wales

Jane Dodds, Senedd Cymru

Lee Marsons, PLP

Rhodri Williams QC, Henderson Chambers

More speakers TBC

14:00 – 15:30 The Consultation’s Core Proposals and their Implications for Wales

The panel will consider

• Proposals to repeal or weaken the s.3 obligation on courts to interpret legislation to be compatible with the ECHR and
• Proposed changes to s.4 declarations of incompatibility for secondary legislation, whereby a court can declare that legislation is not compatible with human rights.
• How Article 8 can be used in deportation cases and
• The planned introduction of a human rights permission stage.

In particular, panellists will examine the implications of these plans for areas of importance to Wales, such as social security and welfare, discrimination, children’s rights and environmental protection and will assess the implications for the Welsh Administrative Court and problems of accessing immigration legal advice in Wales.

Chair: Mia Leslie, PLP

Ruth Brown, Asylum Justice

David Gardner, No5 Chambers

Tatiana Kazim, PLP

Gavin Phillipson, Bristol University

Please note that all bookings are manually processed by a member of our Events team. Please allow 2-3 business days to receive confirmation.

All joining instructions are sent the working day before the start of the course.

For any ticket queries, please email PLP Events.