UK Government – Written Evidence (ROL0104)
1. The Government welcomes the opportunity to provide written evidence to the Committee, which has over the years produced several valuable reports dealing with rule of law issues. The Lord Chancellor and Attorney General look forward to appearing before the Committee in due course.
Introduction
2. The rule of law is the most enduring of British values. It is a fundamental constitutional principle – an essential component of free and democratic societies, and a cornerstone of flourishing economies. Upholding and promoting the rule of law, both at home and abroad, is a central priority of this Government.
3. There are different views as to its definition and the Government does not have the final word. However, certain elements are immutable. The rule of law in the UK is founded on equality before the law; laws that are clear and predictable; access to impartial justice delivered by an independent judiciary; and the principle that all are subject to the law, including government. The Government views these components as fundamental to the public’s trust in our political and legal systems. In this evidence, the Government will detail the work being done to advance these core principles through its work to promote good law-making, access to justice and open justice.
4. The rule of law provides practical benefits to people’s day-to-day lives. It underpins and upholds people’s fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and their rights as homeowners, tenants or consumers. It underpins commerce, allowing different partners to operate based on trust that their commitments will be upheld and that disagreements will be resolved fairly. And importantly, it provides the foundation for our security.
5. The Government has an unwavering commitment to the rule of law, and the UK’s strength in this area is key to supporting the economy and reinforcing the UK’s position as a beacon for the rule of law internationally. With the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index[1] pointing to what it terms a “global rule of law recession”, citing threats to the rule of law around the world, it is more important than ever to ensure that the rule of law is not compromised by systemic pressures or political influence.
6. The Government also supports and promotes the international rule of law, compliance with international law and human rights. It recognises that respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law are inextricably linked. To protect the UK’s status as a respected player on the world stage, the Government remains committed to its international obligations and the institutions which safeguard international peace and prosperity. This includes the Council of Europe, built on those three foundational values, and therefore remaining a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lord Chancellor’s rule of law duties
7. The Lord Chancellor remarked during her swearing-in ceremony last year that the rule of law is “more than an ideal”, it is intrinsic to British values and reflects the principle that the law prevails above all else.
8. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (CRA 2005) affirmed the importance of that reform not adversely affecting the constitutional principle of the rule of law or the Lord Chancellor’s role in relation to it. Since 2005, Lord Chancellors have sworn an oath to respect the rule of law, to be bound by their statutory duties to defend the independence of the judiciary, and to ensure appropriate resourcing of the courts. While it is just the Lord Chancellor who is explicitly marked out in statute in relation to the rule of law, the Ministerial Code and the Cabinet Manual make clear that it is a collective responsibility for all ministers across the Government. It is a duty that the Government takes seriously, and all parts of government work together to govern within the rule of law. This raises confidence in our justice system, at home and abroad. The Lord Chancellor is also responsible for ensuring an efficient and effective justice system, the fairness and soundness of which is fundamental to the rule of law.
9. Closely linked to the principle of the rule of law is the respect for boundaries between the judiciary, executive and legislature, which are a longstanding part of our constitutional arrangements and were brought into clearer definition through the CRA 2005. Upholding the rule of law is not an exclusive preserve of any one branch of government but is a shared responsibility of all three. This means that the Government is accountable for its use of power to both the judiciary and the legislature. Equally key to the Lord Chancellor’s duty in relation to the rule of law is the duty to safeguard judicial independence.
10. An independent judiciary is one of the cornerstones of the UK constitution. Judges are independent from one another as well as from the executive and legislature, and this principle is vital to the proper functioning of our democracy based on the rule of law. It is a long-established feature of our country and has been referred to in statute as early as the Act of Settlement 1701.
11. Under the CRA 2005, all ministers are under a duty to uphold the continued independence of the judiciary. The Lord Chancellor has an additional duty to have regard to the need to defend that independence. At its core, judicial independence requires that institutions mutually respect constitutional boundaries. The CRA 2005 and the Concordat – the working agreement between Government and the judiciary in 2004 – set out the respective responsibilities of the Government and the Lady Chief Justice, as head of the judiciary of England and Wales
12. While the Government and judiciary have different roles, they have in common the objective of respecting and furthering the rule of law. Our judges are independent and impartial. They make binding decisions having considered relevant facts and law, free of any improper influence. In this way the judiciary is essential to promoting and maintaining public confidence in the law and the legal process, and in guaranteeing equality before the law.
13. A fundamental requirement of the rule of law is that executive power must never be unlimited and may not be exercised arbitrarily, and it is essential that the judiciary can independently protect citizens from unlawful acts of government, making decisions in accordance with the law and free from external pressures.
Role of the Law Officers
14. The Law Officers protect and promote the rule of law, both at home and abroad. They sit in a unique position across government, Parliament and the legal professions. Support for the rule of law provides a guiding principle that underpins all aspects of the roles, including their work as principal legal advisers to Government on litigation and policy, as well as on public legal education and promoting legal pro bono work.
15. The Constitution Committee’s recent report on the role of the Lord Chancellor and the Law Officers recommended that the Attorney General’s oath should be updated to make express reference to the primacy of their duty to uphold the rule of law.[2] A similar proposal had also been made in the 2008 Governance of Britain White Paper, which suggested that modernising the oath to require the Attorney General to respect the rule of law would re-emphasise “one of the strengths of the role of the Attorney General, namely the ability of the Attorney General to act as a champion for the rule of law at the heart of Government”.[3]
16. Following the General Election in 2024, for the first time in British history the Law Officers amended the Law Officers’ oath so that it included not only the traditional commitments to serve His Majesty the King but an explicit promise to “respect the rule of law”. This change, which implemented this Committee’s recommendation, is a symbolic statement of this Government’s intent to promote the rule of law domestically and internationally, and of the importance of the role of the Law Officers in doing so.
17. The Law Officers also work closely with the Lord Chancellor to support her duty to protect the independence of the judiciary, to promote a better appreciation of the constitutional balance between Parliament, the executive and the courts, and to promote the rule of law amongst the public. In addition, they support the Foreign Secretary in all his efforts to uphold the rule of law internationally, cognisant of the importance of international law and the rule of law for the prosperity and security of all global citizens.
Rule of law and government decision-making
18. The rule of law requires that everyone, including the Government and its ministers, comply with the law. Since taking office, the Government has better embedded the principle in government decision-making.
19. First, the Prime Minister’s update to the Ministerial Code reinstates the specific reference to ministers’ overarching duty to comply with international law, which had been removed in 2015.
20. Second, the Law Officers have updated the legal risk guidance for all lawyers providing advice to government. In a context where the Government will necessarily sometimes need to take decisions when the legal or factual position is uncertain - for example, when using statutory powers for the first time, when formulating policy or when the state of the relevant law is uncertain - it is crucial that they have clear legal advice about the legal risks applying to decisions. Consequently, successive Law Officers have provided guidance to assist lawyers providing government on the chance of successful legal challenge, and about the impacts, consequences, and limits of legal risk. This latest update is designed to enable lawyers to help ministers deliver their policies and equip them with the fullest possible advice on the legal consequences of decisions.
21. There have been some suggestions that this guidance represents a move towards “rule of lawyers”. That is not the case. Policy decisions are always made by ministers in the UK’s democratically-elected government, supported by full and frank legal advice. The main tenets of the legal risk guidance have remained constant over many years, including within this update.
22. Other mechanisms also ensure the quality and clarity of legislation. The Office of Parliamentary Counsel, who specialise in drafting legislation, work with colleagues within and outside government to promote “good law” making sure laws are necessary, clear, coherent, effective, and accessible. Similarly, the Parliamentary Business and Legislation (PBL) Committee also provides rigorous scrutiny of the quality of bills prior to introduction, which includes a review of each bill’s legal issues memorandum by the Law Officers and their departments. The Guide to Making Legislation, which is issued by the PBL Committee’s secretariat, maintains that an understanding of good law should underpin the preparation and promotion of legislation. The Government Legal Department also has a Statutory Instrument Hub to pool expertise and train drafters who then return to their departments.
23. In addition, the Government has taken steps to support the transparency of law-making. The Government has also produced a “delegated powers toolkit”, which has been added to the Guide to Making Legislation. This seeks to tackle excessive use of delegated powers by putting greater focus on the justification for their use and requiring more careful consideration of appropriate safeguards.
24. The Law Officers have also prioritised work to ensure that government litigation is carried out to the highest standards, both to robustly defend the policies of the Government where appropriate and necessary, but equally to be strategic in recognising where government has got something wrong and should be learning lessons and considering redress. This approach respects the role of the courts in our system and is aimed at optimising the levels of scrutiny and ensuring government can still get things done.
25. Against this background, it is important for the health of UK democracy that the UK’s constitutional arrangements are effective and balanced, ensuring good government. As the executive, the Government must be empowered to take decisions to deliver for the public, giving effect to their election manifesto commitments. The Government, as the Prime Minister has said, is acutely conscious of the public’s frustration with the ability of successive governments to deliver change. Where necessary to enable more efficient delivery or to make decisions more accountable by bringing them back to ministers, changes to institutions or their frameworks are political choices that can be made without affecting this Government’s overriding commitment to the rule of law.
Rule of law and the economy
26. The rule of law, effective courts and an independent judiciary are essential prerequisites for a strong, open economy and therefore for creating the conditions for economic growth. They provide a basis for strong property and intellectual property rights, effective contract enforcement, investor protection, legal certainty and economic stability. They also play a crucial role in the prevention of crime and timely resolution of disputes.
27. There is broad consensus that the rule of law provides business with confidence for trade and investment. Bolstered by the fairness, predictability and global usage of English law, the rule of law has helped the UK become the second largest legal services market in the world[4] and a jurisdiction of choice for international business. This robust legal framework has contributed to the revenue growth generated by legal activities in the UK, which has increased by 7.7% in 2022 to reach £47.1bn in 2023. Over the past 10 years, net UK exports of legal services have risen by more than 80%.
28. Maintaining and enhancing the attractiveness of the UK as a place for international business is clearly important for the UK economy, and an effective civil justice system is an integral part of this. The Arbitration Act 2025 will help cement the UK’s reputation as a destination for flexible, impartial and robust dispute resolution. The international reputation of our courts is a significant factor: in judgments handed down by the Commercial Court between April 2023 and March 2024 64% of litigants came from outside the UK.
29. To reinforce the UK’s attractiveness as a place to do business, the Government has introduced the Digital Assets Bill, which will provide certainty over legal issues around digital assets. We will continue to promote the benefits of English law. The Government also works to promote the UK legal sector’s interests overseas, including through the GREAT Legal Services campaign. This includes promoting legal services themselves as well as London as a global centre for dispute resolution. The Government also supports the UK legal sector’s international interests in addressing market access issues which arise in certain jurisdictions and which prevent UK legal professionals from providing services to their clients. Improving the UK legal sector’s global coverage and expanding its networks in different markets consolidates the UK’s reputation as a leading global legal centre.
30. This activity will be drawn together in the Government’s new Industrial Strategy, which will recognise the overall importance of the rule of law and the UK’s legal services sector for economic growth. Professional and business services will form one of the Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors, and MoJ is working to secure legal services’ interests within this work strand.
Access to Justice
31. The Government is committed to ensuring that our legal system is open, fair and accessible – key components of the rule of law. This Government recognises the important role that legal aid plays in helping people access justice. To that end, in December 2024 we announced that criminal legal aid solicitors will receive up to £92m more a year to help address ongoing challenges in the criminal justice system. This is in addition to the £24m increase for criminal legal aid solicitors announced in November 2024, in response to the “Crime Lower” consultation. We have also recently undertaken a comprehensive review of civil legal aid and just concluded a consultation on uplifts to housing and debt, and immigration and asylum legal aid fees, which would inject an additional £20m into the sector each year once fully implemented. We are reviewing consultation responses and will publish the Government response in due course.
32. The Government recognises the important role that other forms of legal support play in addressing individuals’ social welfare legal problems. MoJ has therefore established the Legal Support Strategy Delivery Group with whom we will co-develop and implement a long-term strategy towards a more sustainable, efficient and effective legal support system that enables people to resolve their legal problems at an early stage. MoJ is also providing over £6m of grant funding up to March 2026 to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support and advice for people with social welfare legal problems.
33. MoJ operates the Help with Fees remission scheme to provide individuals on low incomes with financial support towards the cost of their court or tribunal fee, remitting around £80m of fees annually. To further widen access to the courts, the Government revised the Help with Fees remission scheme in November 2023. The gross monthly income threshold governing eligibility for the scheme was increased to make it 21% more generous, ensuring that financial assistance is available for those most in need.
Open Justice
34. Open justice is another cornerstone of the rule of law; justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. Open justice allows the public to scrutinise and understand the workings of the law, building trust in our justice system.
35. MoJ and His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service have increased public and media access to the courts and tribunals through greater use of remote observation, broadcasting of proceedings, and an increase in the availability of court records, such as certain sentencing remarks and judgments. MoJ offers free sentencing remarks to bereaved families of victims of murder, manslaughter, and fatal road offences, and is running a pilot extending this to victims of rape and other sexual offences, which will conclude in May 2025.
36. In January 2025, MoJ published a summary of responses to its call for evidence on open justice and transparency and will be using this evidence base to inform future policy thinking on these matters. The Government will continue to explore opportunities to take advantage of new technology, which will include work to consider the scope for using AI speech-recognition software to lower the cost of transcripts.
Rule of law and society
37. Civic society also has a role to play in upholding the rule of law. There is a wide network of organisations involved, and the Government seeks to act as a convenor, facilitating and promoting their work. For example, the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Committee brings together key partners and local organisations who deliver and support the provision of pro bono legal advice, to ensure better coordination and to amplify their work.
38. To protect and promote the rule of law, the Law Officers are prioritising work to strengthen cultural acceptance of the rule of law as a fundamental democratic value, rebuilding public trust in the institutions which uphold the rule of law and our democracy in our increasingly politically polarised times. This will focus on communicating the importance of the rule of law more effectively to people who do not usually hear it, promoting it in terms that make sense to different groups, particularly young people. The aim is to embed the rule of law as a core value in our national life so that both its intrinsic value and the practical benefits it provides for people’s daily lives are so well known and appreciated that the importance of the rule of law becomes second nature within UK society. Work is ongoing to establish how to talk about the rule of law in ways that resonate with the wider public, and to identify the pre-existing organisations and resources in this area that the Government can support and promote.
39. The education system can play a useful role in this. The rule of law is already a core part of the fundamental British values that schools in England have a duty to promote, and the Citizenship curriculum in England covers the UK’s democratic systems of government, the role of law and the justice system. Beyond the curriculum, schools encourage children and young people to develop skills that are linked to upholding the rule of law, including critical analysis, media literacy and civic engagement. The Government is considering options to support schools in teaching the rule of law so that the importance and value of this principle is better understood amongst children and young people.
Rule of law abroad
40. The rule of law underpins UK interests and influence globally. The UK’s reputation for respecting the rule of law (including our world-renowned judiciary and legal sector) is a key driver of the UK’s international reputation. This in turn makes the UK an attractive destination for investment. The rule of law is a key tenet of the UK’s soft power. The UK was ranked 1st for respecting law and human rights in the 2025 Global Soft Power Index[5]. Promoting UK values of the rule of law and democracy will be central to the work of the new UK Soft Power Council.
41. As the Prime Minister set out at the UN, the UK will need to work in partnership with other countries to address global challenges, reasserting its commitment to the rule of law alongside other values. It will be important to support international partners to build trusted legal frameworks, ensure effective and fair means of dispute resolution, and remove barriers such as instability and corruption. These efforts will help open opportunities for trade and investment to UK businesses.
42. While there is wide international support for the rule of law, it is also subject to several challenges globally such as an increased number of conflicts and democratic decline. The Government’s work to promote the rule of law abroad plays an important role in helping to tackle these challenges: in addressing the root causes of conflict and insecurity, in strengthening accountability and the international institutions that defend international law, and in pushing for global progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 16 in order to provide access to justice for all and to build effective institutions.
43. The Government works with other countries to uphold the rule of law and promote legal compliance, including at the UN, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. For example, at the 58th session of the Human Rights Council, the UK co-sponsored a resolution on human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
44. The Council of Europe, under its mandate to uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law across Europe, offers great impetus for states to uphold these core principles. We participate in and influence the institution’s work to promote, protect and strengthen the rule of law, while ensuring it adequately addresses new and growing challenges, such as artificial intelligence and climate change. Support for international criminal justice and accountability is a fundamental element of our foreign policy and the UK remains wholly committed to the International Criminal Court, as established by the Rome Statute, and to the International Court of Justice.
45. Through the flagship Rule of Law Expertise (ROLE UK) programme, the UK promotes and strengthens the rule of law in developing countries by providing high-quality pro bono legal and judicial expertise, including in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and across the Indo-Pacific. For example, ROLE UK is supporting commercial lawyers in several states to enhance economic development by expanding their knowledge and skills in mediation, arbitration and reconciliation and responsible business practices. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is providing up to £2.2m in 2024/5 for 64 ROLE UK partnerships. This investment leverages an additional £1m per quarter in rule of law and judicial expertise, via the pro-bono network, which supports in-country justice development and provides targeted project funding.
46. In addition to ROLE UK, MoJ works with partner countries to improve justice systems, influence global standards, and strengthen an international consensus on the value of a rule of law based approach. It does this by undertaking capacity-building programmes to share and exchange expertise, by hosting study visits with international partners and seconding UK experts overseas to support work on prisons and court reform. Recent work has included support for the judiciary and justice system in Ukraine via training, study visits and specialist analysis. Where appropriate, this work has been delivered in partnership with FCDO, the judiciary and organisations such as the Law Society and the British Institute of International & Comparative Law.
47. The Atrocity Crimes Advisory (ACA) Group, established by the UK, the EU and the US, coordinates our collective support to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine in documenting, investigating and prosecuting atrocity crimes. This includes on the ground advice and training, as well as facilitating the deployment of financial resources and skilled personnel. The UK’s ACA support includes the deployment of mobile justice teams to atrocity sites, helping to gather evidence and map cases that can be used in future prosecutions.
48. The Government will continue to seek opportunities to maximise its effectiveness in advocating for the rule of law internationally. For example, it is seeking re-election to the Human Rights Council, and supporting the election of a UK judge to the International Court of Justice. UK lawyers’ pro bono support for in-country justice development and targeted project funding will be supported by the Attorney General’s Office’s new international pro bono sub-committee. This group will better coordinate international pro bono rule of law activity to deliver in the national interest and increase capacity in partner countries with continued support from across Whitehall and the FCDO global network.
8 May 2025