The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #55468   Message #886787
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
10-Feb-03 - 10:54 AM
Thread Name: Human Rights Committee AGREES! PELs
Subject: RE: Human Rights Committee AGREES! PELs
Not bad - especially the conclusion:

"There is a significant risk that the blanket licensing regime proposed in the Bill would give rise to an incompatibility with people's right to freedom of expression under ECHR Article 10, even in the light of the Government's announcement on 3 February mentioned in paragraph 18, above. We draw this to the attention of each House."

I would hope that if the Givernment does push through without accepting amendments, this is a good indication that they are likely to come unstuck in the courts. (The abbouncement of February 3rd is of course the u-turn oin places of worship - on which the committee commented:

This apparently random exemption for places of religious worship might tend to undermine the argument for the rationality of the blanket licensing scheme as a whole, and could engage other human rights issues by appearing to discriminate against occupiers and users of non-religious premises.