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Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has announced that the Tories are forming a formal commission in October which will review the 1998 Human Rights Act.

The 1998 Human Rights Act seeks to increase the power of and supplement the European Convention on Human Rights, firstly through adapting the legal system to avoid potential breaches of the convention. Should a convention right be broken, the Act allows it to be remedied by UK courts without needing recourse to the ECHR. Further, it makes unlawful any breach of the convention by a public (government) body.

However, should an Act of Parliament be passed which conflicts with the convention, the courts are not permitted to overrule or disregard it. The later Act must be interpreted as far as possible consistently with the Human Rights Act, but must be implemented, regardless of whether it is lawful according to the convention or not. The House of Lords can make a "declaration of incompatibility", but even this cannot force a change, merely strongly encourage reconsideration by Parliament, which remains sovereign.

According to Secretary Davis, the Act should be reformed, repealed, or replaced because it has spawned a compensation culture that is out of control. "Britain is a country with a long-standing tradition of respect for human rights and civil liberties. However, the Human Rights Act has given rise to too many spurious rights. It is our aim to rebalance the rights culture," he said.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Lord Filkin counters that the Act has not been responsible for a deluge of claims. "The country is not in the grip of a compensation culture," he said, "This was the conclusion of a recent independent report by the Better Regulation Taskforce. Overall accident claims actually fell last year by 9.5%."

Human Rights law expert Geoffrey Bindman QC said only a few cases were brought under the Human Rights Act. "It is simply not true that we have incorporated some European form or document. It very much follows the principles of basic rights - freedom from arbitrary arrest, and detention, freedom from torture, freedom of expression and right to a private life," he said. "The idea of frivolous claims is unreal. It has been a bugbear for many years in the tabloid press. They have been looking for ludicrous cases. It isn't too difficult given we are a country of 60 million people."

General Secretary of the GMB union, Kevin Curran, agreed. "The idea that there are such things as spurious rights is spurious in itself. If anything Britain needs, it is the strengthened rights of its people."