Who is going to press the button to scrap all this human rights nonsense which is materially affecting the rights of the suffering tax payers ???
Human rights warning over MPs’ expenses regulation
new bill runs into more trouble
By Daniel Bentley – Press and Journal
Published: 01/07/2009
PLANS for the independent regulation of MPs’ expenses claims are incompatible with human rights laws, an influential parliamentary committee warned last night.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) cast the proposals in doubt even as controversial legislation to bring them into force was being sped through the House of Commons.
The Parliamentary Standards Bill, introduced in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal, is expected to complete its Commons stages today.
It will create an independent watchdog to regulate the allowances system and create criminal offences which could see errant MPs facing jail.
But, in a report rushed out at short notice last night, the cross-party JCHR claimed it would violate MPs’ rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
It said the new regulatory system outlined in the bill would not comply with the right to a fair hearing under Article 6 of the convention.
Committee chairman Andrew Dismore said: “It is ironic that a bill which is primarily designed to restore public confidence in the House of Commons is being rushed through parliament and will not receive proper scrutiny.
“We are clear that if the bill is passed as it stands, it will only be a matter of time before the European Court of Human Rights finds a violation of a member’s right to a fair hearing.”
The committee’s intervention is only the latest controversy to hit the bill after the Clerk of the House, Malcolm Jack, warned that it would weaken parliament.
Dr Jack, giving evidence to the Commons justice committee, last night restated a separate concern that the bill would have a “chilling effect” on MPs’ freedom of speech.
While the government is determined to get the bill on the statute book before the summer recess, MPs have condemned the speed at which it has been pushed through.
In the Commons last night, senior Tory Sir Patrick Cormack accused ministers of acting with “indecent haste” given the constitutional implications of the legislation.
The bill will set up a new commissioner for parliamentary investigations to probe allegations of expenses abuse. At the same time, an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority would have powers to sanction MPs in response to the commissioner’s findings.
But the JCHR said the new system would not satisfy the entitlement to an “independent and impartial tribunal” under human rights legislation.
It said “the procedural safeguards in the bill fall well short of the minimum requirements for fairness and are insufficient to prevent breaches of the right to a fair hearing occurring in practice”.
The committee called for last-minute changes to the bill to provide more detail about the “procedural safeguards” for MPs and to introduce a right of appeal to another body.
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