Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on which occasions the Supreme Court has declared an incompatibility between domestic legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 since that Court's inception; and what the Government's response was in each such case.

This question was answered on 13th July 2015
Since its inception, the Supreme Court has confirmed two declarations of incompatibility under section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998, both of which had been made previously by the Court of Appeal. These were in the cases of R (F and Thompson) v SSHD (2010) UKSC 17 and T & Anor, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department & Anor [2014] UKSC 35.

In the first case, the incompatibility was remedied by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Remedial) Order 2012.

In the second case, while the Government’s application to appeal to the Supreme Court was outstanding, changes were made to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 and to the Police Act 1997 by secondary legislation in response to the Court of Appeal’s earlier judgment.