Brighton and Hove received city status to mark the Millennium celebrations; the same honour was conferred upon five towns in 2002 to commemorate Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee.
The Human Rights Act came fully into effect on 2 October 2000. It gives further effect in the UK to the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Act places a duty on all public authorities to respect the Convention rights and says that all legislation should be interpreted in a way which is compatible with those rights. The Act preserves Parliamentary sovereignty, but it empowers the courts to draw attention to incompatibilities in Acts of Parliament - and gives Ministers a fast track procedure to correct such problems.
We promote good practice and compliance with the Human Rights Act within and outside Government. We maintain a popular public website and helpline and we operated a programme of roadshows to get the message across to public authorities outside London. We look after the UK's position under various international human rights treaties, including her reporting obligations.
The Government's policy in introducing the Human Rights Act was to 'Bring Rights Home'. This involves building a culture of rights and responsibilities, based on the basic values in the Act, as well as giving people access to their rights in their own courts. This is a long-term process and we are working with a broad range of outside partners to develop and promote good practice, including citizenship education.
The House of Lords Reform Unit joined our Department in October 2001. Previously it was located in the Cabinet Office. The Unit is responsible for advising the Lord Chancellor and the Leaders of the House of Commons and House of Lords, with whom he works closely, on how to take forward the Government's Manifesto commitment on further reform of the House of Lords.
The main work of the Unit over the past year has been the preparation of a White Paper, The House of Lords, Completing the Reform (Cm 5291), published on 7 November 2001. The White Paper was the basis for a consultation exercise, which ran until 31 January 2002. The Unit's primary task over the next months will be to analyse the responses to that exercise and advise Ministers on how to take the policy forward. If Ministers decide to bring forward legislation, the Unit will be responsible for the preparation and passage of the Bill.
The Freedom of Information Act, which was passed in November 2000, gives the public a right of access to the information held by public authorities. We will implement the Act across the public sector by January 2005, a process that involves drafting secondary legislation and guidelines and wide consultation across the public sector. Once the Act is in force, it will affect more than 70,000 organisations, from government departments and local authorities to schools and health authorities.
The Data Protection Act (1998) provides the statutory framework for the holding and processing of information on individuals. An update of the original 1984 Act, it states that personal data can be used only for the purposes for which it was collected. The public have rights of access to information about them held by, for example, their bank, employer or doctor. We will provide secretarial support to the Tribunal that hears appeals and also sponsor the Office of the Information Commissioner, which is a non-departmental body enforcing the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts.
The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom. They are dependencies of the Crown, each with their own laws and judicial system. We are now responsible for handling the constitutional relationship between the UK and the islands.
Our role involves administering the grant of the Royal Assent to island legislation, handling the islands' defence and international relations and being ultimately responsible for the islands' good governance. We are also the point of contact between the UK Government and the islands' governments, and we consult on extending to each island UK and European legislation and other international conventions.
Responsibility for Royal matters originates with the ancient office of the King's Secretary, who handled the King's correspondence, issued Bills and Warrants in the King's name and was the channel of approach to the King for those subjects who had no right of access to the Sovereign. Despite the historical transformation of the role, many of the original Secretary's duties continue to fall to the Lord Chancellor in his new role.
We provide advice in areas as diverse as The Queen's Prerogative, petitions to The Queen, royal warrants and charters, congratulatory messages from The Queen, royal births and marriages, the national anthem, relations between Church and State, The Queen's consent to Bills, election of bishops and the succession to the throne. We are also involved in work on lesser Seal Warrants for appointments to certain public offices. This is similar to work already undertaken by the Crown Office which prepares warrants for Letters Patent under the Great Seal.
In July 2001, we published a Consultation Paper about the Report of the Review Group on the organisation, management and accountability of the Royal Peculiars of Westminster Abbey, St George's Chapel, Windsor, and the Chapels Royal at St James' Palace, Hampton Court and the Tower of London. Royal Peculiars are churches that are independent from normal diocesan and provincial control. The Lord Chancellor will make final recommendations to Her Majesty during 2002.
City status and Lord Mayoralties are honours granted by The Queen, on ministerial advice, under the Royal Prerogative. In 2000, three new cities were created to mark the Millennium celebrations: Brighton and Hove, Inverness and Wolverhampton. In March 2002, we announced the creation of five more cities to mark Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee: Preston, Newport, Stirling, Lisburn and Newry. In addition, Exeter was granted a Lord Mayoralty - the first time this honour has been granted since Chester received it in 1992.
Forty-two towns applied for city status, and seventeen cities sought a Lord Mayoralty. Following the closing date of the competition in October 2001, officials in our Department considered the bids against the criteria agreed by Her Majesty:
Recommendations were sought from the Secretaries of State for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland where relevant. The Lord Chancellor also consulted the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions before submitting his advice to The Queen.
The annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in London to honour our war dead is now our responsibility. The Queen normally leads the nation's remembrance on Remembrance Day, the second Sunday in November, accompanied by other members of the Royal Family, senior politicians, High Commissioners of Commonwealth countries, representatives of the Armed Forces and Civilian Services and members of faith communities. The two-minute silence, observed across the nation, is perhaps the most poignant and well-known feature of the Cenotaph ceremony, which is followed by a march-past of former servicemen and women and civilian representatives.