Dominic Raab is facing demands from 150 organisations to allow detailed parliamentary scrutiny of legislation that is expected to replace the Human Rights Act.
The justice secretary has been sent a letter on Tuesday coordinated by the campaign group Liberty calling for the bill of rights to be subjected to “robust consideration” amid fears it will put the government beyond the reach of the law.
It follows deepening concern that the bill will alter the balance between freedom of expression and privacy and affect people’s rights for many years.
Last week, the justice minister James Cartlidge said in a response to a parliamentary question that the government did not intend to submit the bill of rights for pre-legislative scrutiny – a move that sidesteps demands from parliamentary committees.
The Conservative chair of the justice committee, Bob Neill, called the government’s decision to ignore recommendations from the joint committee on human rights “disappointing”.
His comments were echoed by politicians from across parliament, including Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National party.
The letter says the proposals set out in the bill of rights are of “supreme constitutional significance and have the potential to impact on the rights of individuals for many years to come”.
It continues: “It is therefore highly disappointing and worrying that the government has rejected calls from parliamentary committees representing both houses and all major parties to ensure that these measures are subject to the fullest amount of public and parliamentary scrutiny.”
As well as Martha Spurrier, the director of Liberty, other signatories include the Labour peer Helena Kennedy, Halima Begum from the Runnymede Trust and Harriet Wistrich, the director of the Centre for Women’s Justice.
The Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998 to enable UK nationals to rely on rights contained in the European convention on human rights before the domestic courts.
In December, the government announced a consultation to revise the act.
It cited estimates that about 70% of all successful human rights challenges by foreign national offenders against deportation orders are made under article 8, the right to a family life.
Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, has argued that the bill will better protect the press in exposing wrongdoing and said he feared free speech was being “whittled away” by “wokery and political correctness”.
He told the Daily Mail in March that under plans being drawn up for the bill of rights, there would be only limited restrictions placed on the protections on free speech with checks to stop people abusing it to promote terrorism. It would be given a “different status in the pecking order of rights” with the main ramifications expected to be on legal disputes.
