Clegg unveils Bill of Rights commission, says government is "serious" about giving councils power over money they use

The government is to launch a commission that will look into the case for a British Bill of Rights, the Deputy Prime Minister has said.

Speaking in London today, Nick Clegg said: “It will, however incorporate and build on all the obligations of the European Convention of Human Rights and the way that those rights are enshrined in British legislation.”

He added that the government would seek to actively promote greater public understanding of the rights they enjoy.

“One of the things that has gone wrong, is that people simply aren’t aware of the rights which every single citizen in the United Kingdom enjoys under the legislation in force,” Clegg said.

Details of the proposed commission are expected to be published shortly when the coalition agreement is published in full. Prior to the election, the Conservatives had proposed replacing the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister is reported to have earlier warned that any government that tampers with the HRA does so “at its peril”, raising the prospect of rifts emerging within the coalition.

In his speech, Clegg also promised “the biggest shake-up of our democracy since 1832 when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries of British democracy, for the first time extending the franchise beyond the landed classes”.

This will involve three major steps, he said:

• Repealing “all of the intrusive and unnecessary laws” that inhibit people’s freedom
• Reforming politics so that is open, transparent and decent, and
• Radically redistributing power away from the centre.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the coalition government was “serious about giving councils much more power over the money they use, so they depend less on the whims of Whitehall, and can deliver the services and support their communities need.

“If you are serious about localism, if you are serious about devolution, you have got to be serious about devolving greater control over money,” he added, although he admitted that there were “1,001 ways you can do that”.

This will be combined with strengthening devolution to other parts of Britain, whether working with the Scottish Parliament to implement the recommendations of the Calman Commission, working with the Welsh Assembly on a referendum on the transfer of further powers to Wales or supporting the devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Other proposals announced by Clegg included the scrapping of ID cards and the ContactPoint children’s database, and proper regulation of CCTV and the DNA storage database. There will also be a review of libel laws “so that we better protect freedom of speech”.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that the House of Lords would be replaced by an elected second chamber, with members chosen by a proportional voting system, and the public will be able to sack MPs found guilty of serious wrongdoing.