What the powers will be of the proposed Scottish Human Rights Commission and whether these will be limited to devolved matters.

The Scottish Executive has statedthat the Scottish Human Rights Commission will be able to investigate and reporton generic or sectoral human rights issues in relation to public policy. The Executive’spreferred approach is that to support that investigatory function the commissionshould have powers of access to information based on the powers given to the ScottishPublic Services Ombudsman. These powers would be defined fully in legislation. Additionally,the Commission would be able to offer advice to the Scottish Parliament on legislationafter introduction and to advise the courts in certain circumstances. The finalshape of the commission’s powers will be for the Scottish Parliament to determinein its consideration of legislation to create the commission.
As a body established by the Scottish Parliament, the commission will only be able to exercise its powers inrelation to issues that are devolved in terms of the Scotland Act.