Poll: Should the Human Rights Act be changed?

Proposals to replace the Human Rights Act will be "brought forward", the Government said.

However, legislation to scrap the controversial law and introduce a British Bill of Rights was absent from the Queen's Speech.

The delay in implementing the Conservatives' proposals comes after senior backbenchers voiced their opposition.

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Legislation is expected following consultation later in the parliament.

The Government says it will "reform and modernise" the human rights legal framework and "restore common sense" to the application of its laws.

Campaign groups hit out at the plans.

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Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, said: "It's very worrying that the Government seems hell-bent on tinkering with or even completely replacing such an important part of our human rights protections.

"Any move to scrap the Act would be a real blow for human rights in this country and around the world.

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"Repealing the Human Rights Acts could represent the single biggest roll-back of rights in recent British history.

"Ordinary people across the world are still fighting for the rights we enjoy in the UK - we must not let politicians take away these hard-won rights at the stroke of a pen."

Debate over the Act has been reignited after the Tories' election victory.

They pledged in their manifesto to introduce a bill of rights which "will restore common sense to the application of human rights in the UK" and "reverse the mission creep that has meant human rights laws being used for more and more purposes and often with little regard for the rights of wider society".

They say it will stop terrorists and other serious foreign criminals from using "spurious" human rights arguments to prevent deportation.

They want to break the formal link between British courts and the European Court of Human Rights, making the UK's Supreme Court the "ultimate arbiter" of human rights matters.