Video: Sir Leigh Lewis KCB - Prospects for a British Bill of Rights
28 January 2013
The Commission on a Bill of Rights was established in March 2011 and mandated to investigate the creation of a UK Bill of Rights which draws upon current ECHR obligations. On 18 December 2012, the Commission published its report. Seven of the nine committee members advocated the creation of a UK Bill of Rights, while the two dissenting members have voiced concerns that a Bill could be used as a means of decoupling the UK from the ECHR. The Commission's Chair, Sir Leigh Lewis KCB, will discuss the report's findings and likely impact.
Sir Leigh Lewis was Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work
and Pensions from 2005 until his retirement from the Civil Service at
the end of 2010. Lewis entered the then Department of Employment in 1973
and during his early career he worked on a wide variety of subjects
including trade union legislation, benefits delivery and EU business. He
was Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Lord Young of Graffham from 1984 to
1986 subsequently spending three years on secondment at Cable &
Wireless as Group HR Director from 1988 to 1991. Leigh became Chief
Executive of the Employment Service in 1997 and the first ever Chief
Executive of Jobcentre Plus in 2001. From 2003 to 2005 he was Permanent
Secretary for Crime, Policing and Counter-terrorism in the Home Office
and was in that role at the time of the 7/7 attacks. Since retiring
from the Civil Service Leigh Lewis has become the Chair of London based
homelessness charity, Broadway, and has been appointed Chair of the Bill
of Rights Commission. He also holds non-executive roles at Aviva PLC,
Serco PLC and PriceWaterhouse Coopers.
See the report at the Commission's webpage
For the full listing of events on the seminar: /constitution-unit/events