Since the reallocation of some duties between government departments as part of the Machinery of Government changes in 2001, constitutional development has played an increasingly important role in the work of the Lord Chancellor's Department.
The Human Rights Division's main purpose is to help promote good practice and compliance with the Human Rights Act within and outside Government. We also seek to maintain and develop the UK's position under various international human rights treaties, and co-ordinate the UK's periodic reporting requirements to the United Nations' Human Rights Committee and other bodies.
The Division mounted a major inter-departmental review of the UK's international human rights instruments, and has established a forum with non-governmental organisations to help us develop our thinking on human rights matters. Yvette Cooper, Minister with responsibility for human rights policy, chairs the forum. We have also co-ordinated the Government's response to reports received from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, as well as reports to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
The Division has played a leading role in support of Baroness Scotland, the LCD Minister who has represented the UK Government in negotiations in Brussels over the possible incorporation of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Community treaties, and as regards accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. At the time of preparing this report, a number of amendments to the Charter have been proposed to make it more suitable for legal status. It will be for the Convention on the Future of Europe to recommend a way forward which can be considered by the next Inter-Governmental Conference, scheduled for 2004.
Following the publication of the White Paper The House of Lords: Completing the Reform in November 2001, the House of Lords Reform Unit completed the analysis of responses to the issues raised in that White Paper. In May 2002 the Government concluded that there was insufficient consensus to proceed with its reform proposals. It asked both Houses of Parliament to set up a Joint Committee to consider the issues and see if it was possible to produce an approach that did command a broad consensus.
The Joint Committee's work was to fall into two parts. First, an analysis of the required role, powers and functions of the second chamber and the proposal of a range of options for composition in the light of that analysis. Both Houses would vote on this range of options in a free vote. The Joint Committee would then be asked to work up a single proposal taking account of the opinions expressed in both Houses. The Joint Committee published the report on the first part of its remit in December 2002. The votes took place on 4 February 2003. The House of Commons failed to give a majority to any of the options proposed. The House of Lords voted to preserve an all-appointed second chamber. The Joint Committee is now considering the way forward in the light of those votes.
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. Once the Act is in force in 2005, it will affect more than 100,000 organisations, from government departments and local authorities to schools and health authorities. The Publication Scheme provisions of the Act came into force for government departments and many non-departmental public bodies in November 2002. Local authorities followed in February 2003. These provisions, which require authorities to disclose specified information proactively, will roll out progressively across the public sector this year and next.
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 provide administrative support to the Tribunal that hears appeals; we also sponsor the Office of the Information Commissioner, which is a non-departmental public 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 internally self-governing dependencies of the Crown, each with its own laws and judicial system. The Lord Chancellor's Department is responsible for handling the constitutional relationship between the UK and the islands and is the point of contact with the islands' Governments. Our role includes administering the grant of the Royal Assent to island legislation and providing advice to the islands on a range of government business. Details are set out in A Guide to Government Business involving the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
We provide advice on a number of royal matters. These include succession to the throne and other constitutional questions; use of the title 'Royal'; royal births and marriages; petitions to the Queen; royal warrants and charters; grants of city status and Lord Mayoralty under the royal prerogative; and requests for congratulatory messages from the Queen on 100th birthdays and diamond wedding anniversaries.
The Department maintains the Official Roll of the Baronetage, and requires that all baronets prove their claims before they can be entered on the Roll. It deals with disputed peerages and is in the process of recommending new procedures for a Roll of the Peerage.
We also advise on relations between Church and State and handle procedures for the appointment of bishops. We deal with proposals for civilian gallantry awards, with fundamental marriage law and with issues affecting transsexual people. The Government announced in December 2002 that it was committed to legislate as soon as possible to give transsexual people their human rights in the acquired gender. The Government aims to publish a draft Bill, to be followed by substantive legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Following the report of the Review Group on Royal Peculiars, the Lord Chancellor will be making recommendations to the Queen on the way forward in dealing with the organisation, management and accountability of the Royal Peculiars - churches that are independent from normal diocesan and provincial control.
The Lord Chancellor is responsible for organising, on behalf of the Government, the annual ceremony at the Cenotaph. Each Remembrance Day, the Queen leads the nation's remembrance, 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. A wreath-laying is preceded by two minutes' silence, observed across the nation, and followed by a short religious service. There follows a march past the Cenotaph by former servicemen and women and representatives of relevant civilian organisations.
On April 11 2002 the Performance and Innovation Unit published a report entitled Privacy and Data Sharing: The Way Forward for Public Services. The report highlighted the need to balance carefully the twin objectives of enhancing privacy and improved services through better use of data.
The Lord Chancellor's Department assumed overall responsibility for championing and overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the report and the outcome of the consultation exercise embedded in it.
A number of initiatives have taken place:
The Public Services Trust Charter ('the Charter') has been reviewed and developed. The next version of the Charter will be ready for further consultation later this year. Examples of the underpinning documents (protocols, codes of practice and management guidance) have been collected and evaluated to develop a library of best practice as a reference point for public services.
The current legal framework has also been reviewed and guidance produced for consideration by the Senior Group on Information Policy, prior to general promulgation to public service providers. The Senior Group on Information Policy consists of board-level members of Whitehall departments who champion the awareness and implementation of information legislation and related issues. It has strategic oversight of practitioner level groups on freedom of information, data protection, privacy and data sharing, and archives and records management.
A series of Open Forum events has been set up to give the public an opportunity to voice concerns about privacy and data sharing issues. The views expressed from these events, the consultation exercise on the Charter and proposed surveys will inform future decisions about policy development.
Our primary tasks over the coming year will be to establish a clear understanding of public opinion, to determine the extent of the current legal framework and from there identify what barriers remain, and to secure support for the revised Charter and accompanying documents and systems.
As a result of Machinery of Government changes in May 2002, the Lord Chancellor's Department took on general policy responsibility for electoral matters and particular responsibility for Westminster and European parliamentary elections (local elections are the responsibility of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister). Included with those functions are:
This last has most notably meant working closely with the ODPM on the development of the electoral modernisation pilot schemes for the May 2003 local elections.
The year saw legislative activity in the new Representation of the People (Amendment) Regulations 2002, which deals with access to, and sale and supply of, the electoral register, and a European Parliament (Representation) Bill, which establishes a mechanism to reduce the number of UK MEPs consequent upon enlargement of the European Union, and enfranchises the people of Gibraltar for European Parliamentary elections.
There has been close contact with the Electoral Commission on all aspects of electoral law and policy and officials have contributed to their programme of reviews which is aimed at examining every major aspect of current electoral law and practice. Preparations have begun for the European elections in 2004 and a consultation paper on combining those elections with the local elections that year was issued jointly with the ODPM. Work has also taken place on developing a generic code of conduct for referenda in anticipation of referenda for regional assemblies.
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