The Joint Committee on Human Rights is appointed by the House of Lords and the House of Commons to consider matters relating to human rights in the United Kingdom (but excluding consideration of individual cases); proposals for remedial orders made under Section 10 of and laid under Schedule 2 to the Human Rights Act 1998; and in respect of draft remedial orders and remedial orders, whether the special attention of the House should be drawn to them on any of the grounds specified in Standing Order No. 73 (Lords)/151 (Commons) (Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)).

The Joint Committee has a maximum of six Members appointed by each House, of whom the quorum for any formal proceedings is three from each House.

Current membership

House of Lords	House of Commons
Lord Bowness	Vera Baird MP (Labour, Redcar)
Lord Lester of Herne Hill	Mr David Chidgey MP (Liberal Democrat, Eastleigh)
Lord Parekh	Jean Corston MP (Labour, Bristol East) (Chairman)
Baroness Perry of Southwark	Mr Kevin McNamara MP (Labour, Kingston upon Hull)
Baroness Prashar	Mr Richard Shepherd MP (Conservative, Aldridge-Brownhills)
Baroness Whitaker	Mr Shaun Woodward MP (Labour, St Helens South)

Powers

The Committee has the power to require the submission of written evidence and documents, to examine witnesses, to meet at any time (except when Parliament is prorogued or dissolved), to adjourn from place to place within the United Kingdom, to adjourn to institutions of the Council of Europe outside the United Kingdom no more than four times in any calendar year, to appoint specialist advisers, and to make Reports to both Houses.


The Lords Committee has power to agree with the Commons in the appointment of a Chairman. The procedures of the Joint Committee follow those of House of Lords Select Committees where they differ from House of Commons Committees.

Publication

The Reports and evidence of the Joint Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the two Houses. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/commons/selcom/hrhome.htm. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume.

Contacts

All correspondence should be addressed to The Clerk of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Committee Office, House of Commons London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general inquiries is: 020 7219 2797; the Committee's e-mail address is jchr@parliament.uk.

Footnotes

In the footnotes of this Report, references to oral evidence are indicated by 'Q' followed by the question number. References to written evidence are indicated by the page number as in 'Ev 12'.