Saturday 4 October 2014

Liberal Democrats - Doing what works

The Liberal Democrat Party Conference is taking place in Glasgow - 4th to 8th October.  Their views on Criminal Justice policy are presented in a Policy Paper - Doing what works to cut crime

It's an interesting read.  How much of it will actually influence the course of a future government remains to be seen.  There is a possibility that yet another coalition might emerge from the 2015 general election.

On the Conservative Party's human rights plans, the Liberal Democrat Justice Spokesman (Simon Hughes MP) stated that - "“Liberal Democrats have always been 100% clear that we will not allow the Tories to take away the hard-won human rights of British people when in the UK or anywhere else in Europe" - see announcement

Sadiq Khan MP - the Labour Party Shadow Justice Minister - issued a statement criticising the Conservative Party plans for human rights though
he argues that the European Court of Human Rights requires some reforms notably judicial appointments and the margin of appreciation accorded to signatory States in some areas of the convention.  At the recent Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Mr Khan said that a future Labour government would retain the Human Rights Act 1998 - (see post 25th September 2014).

Significant progress has been made and will continue to be made in reducing the backlog of cases brought to the court.  This is discussed by Alice Donald on the UK Human Rights blog.   The reduction in backlog follows some reforms made by the Brighton Declaration 2011 - a meeting in which the previous Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke played a leading role. 


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