Queen’s Speech

Lord Flight Excerpts

Thursday 12th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I was particularly pleased to find a draft Bill of Rights included in the Queen’s Speech this year. It is well time to end the abuse of the human rights framework and restore common sense to our justice system. The Bill of Rights will ensure our human rights framework both meets the needs of the society it serves and commands public confidence. The main benefits of the Bill of Rights should be to defend and support freedom of speech, to reduce unnecessary litigation and to avoid risk aversion for bodies delivering public services. It should protect against wokery and political correctness; to curb the expansion of a rights culture, a filter will weed out spurious human rights cases before they get to court.

The Bill of Rights will also tackle the issue of foreign criminals evading deportation or securing their release from jail because their human rights are given greater weight than the safety of the public. It will establish the primacy of UK case law and ensure that UK courts can no longer alter legislation contrary to its ordinary meaning.

The Bill of Rights will guarantee that doubtful cases do not undermine public confidence in human rights, so that courts focus on genuine and credible rights claims. It recognises that responsibilities exist alongside rights, by changing the way that damages can be awarded—for example, by ensuring that courts consider the behaviour of the claimant. The Bill of Rights will extend and apply across the UK.