What duties do public services have?

Our Human Rights Act contains 16 rights. These come from the European Convention on Human Rights but our Human Rights Act put them into UK law.

Although some rights (known as non-absolute rights) can sometimes be limited or restricted, rights cannot be taken away.

Under our Human Rights Act, all public authorities have a legal duty to respect, protect and fulfil human rights across their actions, decisions, policies and services. Section 6 of our Human Rights Act clarifies that the term “public authorities” covers both:

1. Core public authorities (bodies typically seen as public like local authorities, regulators, government departments and the NHS as well as courts and tribunals); and
2. “Hybrid” public authorities (companies, non-profits and charities who are doing things which would typically be done by a core public authority like running a prison).