Scottish Government will oppose repeal of the Human Rights Act

Speaking today at Govan's Pearce Institute, Nicola Sturgeon said that the Scottish Government would oppose any attempt to scrap the Act or withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. She shared the platform with Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.

The First Minister said:

"...any attempt to amend the Human Rights Act is likely, in our view to require the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament. And it is inconceivable – in my opinion, given the breadth of support which the human rights act commands across the Scottish Parliament- that such consent would be granted. And let me make clear absolutely today that the Scottish Government will advocate that it is not granted by the Scottish Parliament.

But that isn’t the end of the matter. The Scottish Government will also oppose any weakening of human rights protections – not just in Scotland, but across the whole of the UK. It has been rumoured and I have no idea whether these rumours are true that the UK Government will somehow try to carve Scotland out of what they are trying to do with the HRA.

Let me be clear about this, we would have no interest whatsoever in doing a deal at Westminster which leaves rights intact here in Scotland, but dilutes them in other parts of the country or, as is perhaps more likely, protects human rights on devolved issues but not on reserved issues."

Full text of Nicola Sturgeon's speech