Commission's response to Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into the Justice and Security Green Paper

Executive Summary

The Commission has identified a number of human rights issues in the proposals in the Green Paper, particularly in respect of the use of closed material. The Commission does not consider that the evidence base in the green paper supports the need to amend closed material proceedings. The scope of the proposals would involve a significant expansion of exceptional court proceedings into the civil justice system.

In the Commission’s views, closed material procedures can never be completely fair, are likely to violate the principles of Article 6, the right to a fair trial. The Commission further believes that the current system of Public Interest Immunity works well as a means of protecting sensitive information that also respects the common law principles of open justice and natural justice.

The Commissions welcomes the government proposals to improve oversight of the activities of the security services. However the Commission considers further reforms than those proposed to the ISC are required to ensure effective oversight.

Download the full response (word)

Last Updated: 23 Jan 2012