The Meaning of Public Authority Under the Human Rights Act Seventh Report of Session 2003-04 Report,Together with Formal Minutes and Appendices : House of Lords Papers 2003-04 39 House of Commons Pape

The Human Rights Act makes it unlawful for public authorities to act in breach of the fundamental rights and freedoms set out in the European Convention on Human Rights, and it allows individuals to seek vindication and redress in UK courts. The Committee's report considers a possible flaw in the design of the Human Rights Act, with regards to the meaning of "public authority", which means that many private and voluntary sector providers of public services are considered outside the scope of the Act, with no obligation to comply with the rights and freedoms it incorporated into domestic law. The Committee concludes that there is a fundamental problem, not with the design of the law, but with its inconsistent and restrictive, application by the courts. The Committee supports the judgement of the House of Lords in the only case it has so far determined on this matter, in which it balanced a narrow category of "pure" public authority against a generously wide and flexible category of "functional" public authority. The Committee concludes that lower courts should be adopting a clear "functional" approach to the interpretation of the Act.