Committee
European and External Relations Committee 04 February 2016
04 Feb 2016 · S4 · European and External Relations Committee
Item of business
Human Rights
Professor David Mead (University of East Anglia)
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Yes. I am certainly not qualified to speak about anything Scottish, but I have a couple of general points to make about the Human Rights Act 1998. The act is largely misunderstood by the public and perhaps mischievously understood by politicians in respect of the way that it operates or the effect that it has had on great swathes of life. It seems to me that cases that involve criminals, terrorists and suchlike tend to make the headlines, but if we bear down—I cannot speak for Scotland; I am thinking about generally across the UK and specifically about England—there is the general day-to-day good that it has done for people in relation to social care and discrimination, even to the extent of protecting people who are not criminals, but are victims of crime. My evidence touches on a couple of cases and I would be happy to explore that issue a bit further if members thought that appropriate. A whole host of areas of live have been made better for people—for want of a better phrase—with the act in place. I know that the Government’s plans, even at the extreme, are not to lose it in its entirety. I do not know what it would be replaced with. If there was any shadow of losing what we have so far, I would be very worried. I echo what Professor Miller said. If the act can be used as a base to expand and extend in certain areas, that would be for the better. As I said, there is a misunderstanding about the way that the act operates and perhaps about the way that UK law interacts with Strasbourg law. It is fairly well documented that there is a general tendency—perhaps less among politicians, but certainly in the media and among some politicians—to lump the ECHR and the European Union together as being rather bad European things. From that starting point, we get a whole spread of misunderstandings about how Europe works and our relationship more generally with it. I think that that is behind whatever clamour there is to repeal the act: it has probably been led by that.
In the same item of business
The Convener
SNP
Welcome back to this meeting of the European and External Relations Committee. Because of the earlier evidence sessions, we are running a wee bit over time. ...
Hanzala Malik (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
I am the deputy convener.
Dr Tobias Lock (University of Edinburgh)
I am from the University of Edinburgh law school.
Willie Coffey
SNP
I am the MSP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley.
Simon Di Rollo QC (Faculty of Advocates)
I am from the Faculty of Advocates.
Roderick Campbell
SNP
I am an MSP for North East Fife and I refer to my register of interests, which declares that I am a member of the Faculty of Advocates.
Professor Alan Miller (Scottish Human Rights Commission)
I am the outgoing chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission.
Adam Ingram
SNP
I am the MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley.
Paul Brown (Campaign for Housing and Social Welfare Law)
I am from the Legal Services Agency, but I am here representing the campaign for housing and social welfare law.
Naomi McAuliffe (Amnesty International)
I am from Amnesty International.
Anne McTaggart
Lab
I am an MSP for Glasgow.
Michael Clancy (Law Society of Scotland)
Good morning. I am from the Law Society of Scotland.
The Convener
SNP
Professor David Mead joins us for this evidence session via a very strong videolink—nice to have you here, Professor Mead. The etiquette for the round-table...
Professor Miller
Sure. Thank you, convener. I took part in an evidence session with the committee on human rights a few weeks ago, so I do not think that anything that I will...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much. Professor Mead, obviously we in this room have a keen interest in the Human Rights Act 1998 and its impact on Scotland. Perhaps you have...
Professor David Mead (University of East Anglia)
Yes. I am certainly not qualified to speak about anything Scottish, but I have a couple of general points to make about the Human Rights Act 1998. The act i...
The Convener
SNP
Okay. Thank you very much. I know that Amnesty International has raised particular issues. Does Naomi McAuliffe want to come in?
Naomi McAuliffe
I thank the committee again for the invite to expand on our written evidence. It is certainly timely for us to look at the issue, given the House of Lords co...
Adam Ingram
SNP
You made a point about misinterpretation and misunderstanding of what the act is all about. Some of what we are hearing from Westminster in particular is tha...
Professor Miller
I would be happy to try to answer that question. It is quite clear from the press and media campaign over the past few weeks on the armed forces issue and fr...
The Convener
SNP
Simon di Rollo, I think that the Faculty of Advocates has produced evidence, which perhaps backs up or gives a different insight into the issue.
Simon Di Rollo
I agree with Alan Miller. As far as the faculty is concerned, we see no justification for the proposition that the court is guilty of mission creep, if that ...
Roderick Campbell
SNP
The other side of the coin is the concept of the margin of appreciation. Will Simon di Rollo—or any of the other witnesses—comment on how that concept has be...
The Convener
SNP
Tobias Lock, do you want to come in on that?
Dr Lock
I will try, because the issues are related. The allegation of mission creep comes from interpretations of the convention through a modern understanding. For ...
The Convener
SNP
Paul Brown will have another perspective on the issue.
Paul Brown
To go back to the question of the armed forces, it is important to bear it in mind that the European convention on human rights legal committee was chaired b...
The Convener
SNP
That is an important issue. I will go back to Professor Mead and then ask Michael Clancy to pick up on some of those points. Professor Mead, in your written...
Professor Mead
The term “worthy victims” is not mine; it is used in media studies to denote people who are portrayed so as to gain sympathy. The problem that I have tried t...
The Convener
SNP
That leads on to the points that Paul Brown made about the understanding of the impact of the proposals on things such as a Scottish constitution. We obvious...