Monday, May 16, 2011

European Convention on Human Rights: Public Finance

European Convention on Human Rights: Public Finance

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of implementing the judgments of the European Convention on Human Rights since 1998. [54546]

Mr Kenneth Clarke: The Ministry of Justice has not made an estimate of the cost to the public purse of implementing the judgments since 1998 of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The implementation of judgments issued by the ECtHR is the responsibility of the Government Department responsible for the policy area concerned.

The measures taken to implement judgments, and the costs and benefits of such measures, can vary considerably depending on the circumstances of the case, and some can be included in wider changes to policy or legislation. The provision of accurate estimates of the total costs associated with the implementation of the judgments of the ECtHR since 1998 would be extremely challenging and could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Comment: Is Kenneth Clarke stating it is too expensive to discover how much the UK's breaches of human rights are costing the taxpayers?

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