THE Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has said that a move towards a UK Bill of Rights is out of step with reality.

Responding to a report by the UK Commission on a Bill of Rights, Professor Alan Miller, the SHRC chairman, said: "The report, although predictably inconclusive, reveals the Commission as out of touch with the progressive direction of travel of human rights protection in Scotland and in Europe, and out of step with reality.

"The majority of recommendations from the report would in the current climate lead to the weakening of human rights protection for everyone in the UK, as illustrated by today's comments from the UK Justice Secretary [Chris Grayling]."

Mr Grayling said: "What has happened over 50 or 60 years is the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights has moved further and further away from the goals of its creators and this is an issue we have to address in this country and across Europe."

A commission created by the Tory-LibDem Coalition to study proposals for a British Bill of Rights reported yesterday but the nine legal experts involved failed to reach a unanimous conclusion.