European Court of Human Rights

Baroness Scotland of Asthal Excerpts

Thursday 24th March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Scott of Foscote]

My Lords—

[Baroness Scotland of Asthal]

My Lords, following the work that we commenced in Interlaken, is there now a timetable for reform? What specific measures do Her Majesty’s Government intend to take with others to ensure that the ECHR is as robust as we would all like it to be?

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

My Lords, as I have indicated, we hope that during the period of our chairmanship of the Council of Europe we will be able to take forward the reforms. All 47 members of the council believe that there ought to be reforms. We want to look at ways in which we can make the court more effective and efficient in dealing with the backlog and, as I have said, to reinforce the idea that the court’s role should be a subsidiary one; namely, that member states should have the primary responsibility for protecting convention rights in their own country. We hope that we can make progress on that during our chairmanship.