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Amnesty letter-writing guide

Closed - Secret justice: ask your MP to oppose the Justice and Security Bill


Update 14 February 2013: This action is now closed. Many thanks to all of you who wrote to your MP, urging them to oppose this damaging Bill. 

On 5 February the Justice and Security Bill entered Committee stage in the House of Commons. The Government defied the House of Lords by reverting the Bill back to the original version, removing the limited safeguards the Lords had proposed. Find out more

But it’s not all bad news. Now is the time that your actions get to work. When the Bill goes to report stage in the Commons in just a few weeks’ time it will be your MPs voting. Because of you they will understand the risks and dangers attached to elements of this damaging Bill and we hope they will stand up for justice.

With just weeks to go, we’re backing up your action with our lobbying behind the scenes – joining you in urging MPs to oppose secret justice and protect the right to a fair and open trial.  

Photograph of hands holding prison bars. Photo iStockphoto.com/helenecanadaAbout the Bill

The UK Government is trying to get a Bill through Parliament which would put some of our most fundamental rights at risk. The Justice and Security Bill would allow the government to hide the truth and withhold justice from everyone in the UK.

The House of Lords amended the Bill in November to introduce certain safeguards, but these represent only a small step towards ensuring principles of fair and open justice are protected. The legislation would still introduce  the use of secret hearings, which are fundamentally unfair, into the civil justice system. This is unnecessary as there are already mechanisms in place for handling sensitive materials.

Even if the Lords’ amendments had been retained when the Bill passed through the House of Commons, the legislation could still have allowed the government to throw a cloak of secrecy over cases in which its human rights record came into question, denying justice to victims and their families. As it stands, even these limited safeguards have been lost, rejected by Parliament. Background: read more about secret justice

The only way to ensure the right to a fair and open hearing in a court of law is protected is to reject the Bill.