Oral Answers to Questions

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Thursday 16th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Hannah Bardell.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

Question 7, Mr Speaker.

[The Attorney General (Jeremy Wright)]

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer this question along with Questions 8 and 9.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Question 9 has in fact been withdrawn. The Attorney General did not need to know that and clearly did not know that, which is no indictment of him, but it has been withdrawn.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

7. What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the protection of human rights in the UK.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

8. What assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the protection of human rights in the UK.

[The Attorney General (Jeremy Wright)]

The United Kingdom has a long tradition of ensuring that rights and liberties are protected domestically, and of fulfilling its international human rights obligations. The decision to leave the European Union does not change this.

[Hannah Bardell]

When the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill returns to this House, we will debate the EU charter of fundamental rights. Will the Government support the codification of the charter into UK law following its departure from the EU, and will they support their own Back Benchers’ amendments that have cross-party support?

[The Attorney General]

No. The reason is that the charter of fundamental rights, as the Labour Government indicated at the time, does not create any new rights. It incorporates rights that are already part of European Union law, and the Government’s intention is to translate those substantive rights into domestic law by the operation of the withdrawal Act. We do not intend to incorporate the charter of fundamental rights into domestic law.