DOMINIC RAAB has been accused of trying to put the government “above the law” following reports he’s seeking changes to limit ministerial accountability in the courts. 

The Justice Secretary is reportedly weighing up moves to curb the power of judges in cases where claimants challenge potentially unlawful decisions made by public bodies and the government. 

The proposed changes to judicial reviews, revealed in a leaked Ministry of Justice document reportedly seen by the Guardian, has triggered anger from rights groups, lawyers and Labour.

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said the leak reveals that Mr Raab “thinks that the law only applies to the little people.”

The ministry document suggests that Mr Raab is seeking “further reforms to judicial review,” including changes that could discourage NGOs from bringing cases on behalf of individuals. 

The proposed changes come despite reforms already being passed earlier this year in the Judicial Review and Courts Act. 

Among the changes was the removal of the right to appeal a decision by the Upper Tribunal in a specific type of judicial review case largely used in asylum and human rights cases. 

Campaigners had warned that the removal of this right would increase the risk of vulnerable people being wrongly removed from Britain. 

It also comes amid government attempts to scrap the Human Rights Act and replace it with a “Bill of Rights,” which would reduce the influence of the European Courts of Human Rights in domestic courts. 

Campaign group Freedom from Torture described the proposals as the “latest in a series of attacks on the rights of the public to hold the powerful to account.”

The group’s head of international advocacy Tracy Doig said: “The independence of the judiciary from government influence is a cornerstone of democracy in this country, based on hundreds of years of legal precedence.

“Raab’s chilling vision of a government above the law is a threat to the rights that protect every one of us.”

Law Society of England and Wales president Stephanie Boyce warned that changes to judicial review legislation could result in more unlawful actions by public bodies going unchallenged or untouched, adding this “undermines a crucial element of the rule of law.”

Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s law and human rights programme director, said: “It’s worrying that the Ministry of Justice apparently sees judicial review as an annoyance or even a threat, rather than an essential part of the necessary checks and balances of a properly functioning democracy.

“We’ll be monitoring this closely and intend to staunchly defend judicial review as a key legal safeguard which needs preserving and bolstering — not whittled away at the whim of ministers who apparently resent being subject to its scrutiny.”

The ministry said it does not comment on leaks.