Under the Bill of Rights, foreign criminals will no longer be able to avoid deportation for human rights reasons.
Reforms will massively restrict the number of appeals brought under the controversial ‘right to private and family life’.
These will make it much harder for appeals to be made before a court of law under Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights. This article was adopted by Labour into UK law.
The new Bill of Rights will also insist that rulings by Britain’s top judges take precedence over those from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: ‘Our plans for a Bill of Rights will strengthen typically British rights like freedom of speech and trial by jury, while preventing abuses of the system and adding a healthy dose of common sense.’
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says the Government’s plan for a Bill of Rights will strengthen ‘typically British rights’ like freedom of speech and trial by jury, while preventing abuses of the system
Currently up to 70 per cent of foreign criminals who lodge deportation appeals do so under Article 8, claiming it will be a breach of their rights to return them to their home nation for reasons such as they have children in the UK.
Sources say they’ll need to first seek court permission under the new plans. It is understood foreign offenders could be restricted from using Article 8 depending on the gravity of their crime or the length of their jail sentence.
A senior Government source said last night: ‘The idea is to have a permission stage that could effectively filter out spurious or vexatious claims to make sure the courts are concentrating on the genuine, credible ones.
“The European Court has also its authorization stage. So in a way we’ll be following the model that Strasbourg has.’
Officials believe the changes will end interference from Europe because measures will emphasise the seniority of the UK’s Supreme Court.
Reforms by the Tory-led coalition government in 2012 attempted to stop abuse of Article 8, saying criminality should only be outweighed by family life arguments in ‘exceptional cases’.
However, sources claimed that this move did not succeed and that since then there has been an increase in successful Article 8 appeals. The latest figures for August showed that 10,882 foreign inmates were released from jail but not deported.
From 2012’s low of 4,000 people, the total number on the streets has increased by 176 percent. It is also believed that ministers believe reforms to human rights are crucial to the plans for the overhaul of parole.
Amid concern about decisions to free offenders such as double child killer Colin Pitchfork, the Ministry of Justice is working on changes which place more weight on public protection than criminals’ rights.