The Human Rights Act 1998 came into force just over 20 years ago in October 2000, vastly improving protections for human rights in common law, statute, EU and international law. Now, justice secretary Dominic Raab has confirmed plans to replace it with a UK bill of rights.
What the government is proposing is not merely an “update” to the Human Rights Act, as claimed in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto. It is, instead, a wholesale revision of a fundamental feature of the UK constitution.
