Page 307 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
3. When does the HRA take effect?
4. Who can bring a claim under the HRA?
5. How can a claim be brought?
6. When can a claim be brought?
7. What happens if a claim is successful?
8. Can the HRA have any effect on disputes involving ‘private’ bodies or individuals?

19.2.2 Who is bound by the HRA?

The HRA only has direct application to ‘public authorities’. It has no direct application to
private bodies.

Public authorities are not fully defined. By Section 6(3) HRA, a ‘public authority’ includes
a court, a tribunal that exercises functions in relation to legal proceedings, and any person
certain of whose functions are functions of a public nature. In other words, the HRA
envisages three different types of public authorities:

1. Public bodies that are obviously public authorities (‘standard public authorities’)
2. Bodies that carry out some public functions (‘functional public authorities’)
3. Courts and tribunals.

Standard public authorities
A standard public authority must not act incompatibly with Convention rights in any of its
functions, whether or not they are ‘private’ in nature. In other words, the Convention applies
to matters such as employment and contracting with private bodies.

The only public bodies that are certain to be treated as standard public authorities under the
HRA are those that are obviously governmental in character, such as central government,
local government and the police. It seems likely that bodies such as the Broadcasting
Complaints Commission will also be treated as a standard public authority.

Functional public authorities
A functional public authority does not act unlawfully under Section 6(5) HRA where the
particular act being challenged is ‘of a private nature’.

The range of bodies that will be treated as functional authorities is less clear. The government
has expressed the view that functional authorities include the privatized utilities Railtrack,
the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the BBC, the Independent
Television Commission (but not the independent television companies), the British Board of
Film Classification and the Press Complaints Commission. It has, however, been held that
‘public’ in Section 6(3)(c) HRA is used in the sense of ‘governmental’ (R (Heather) v The
Leonard Cheshire Foundation (2001)). This has the effect of restricting the range of bodies
that are subject to the HRA.
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