The review fulfils a Conservative manifesto promise but has been greeted with alarm from human rights campaigners, who worry that it will lead to weaker rights protections.

It will consider the relationship between the domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR); the impact of the HRA on the relationship between the judiciary, executive and Parliament; and the implications of the way in which the HRA applies outside the territory of the UK.

The review will run alongside the separate independent review of judicial review, which has sparked concern from the Law Society of Northern Ireland.

Sir Peter, who served as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 2010 to 2019, will be supported in his work by a panel of senior legal figures and academics.

The Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC MP, said: “Human rights are deeply rooted in our constitution and the UK has a proud tradition of upholding and promoting them at home and abroad. After 20 years of operation, the time is right to consider whether the Human Rights Act is still working effectively.

“I am grateful to Sir Peter Gross and his esteemed panel for undertaking this timely and important piece of work and look forward to his findings.”

Sir Peter added: “I am delighted to chair the Independent Human Rights Act Review. I will undertake this role with a panel selected on the basis of its members’ wealth of experience coming from a variety of senior legal and academic backgrounds.

“The Act constitutes a most important part of our legal framework; IHRAR will entail an independent process of careful reflection to consider its workings, together with whether and, if so, what, reforms might be justified.”

However, Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: “Tearing up the Human Rights Act would be a giant leap backwards. It would be the single biggest reduction in rights in the history of the UK.

“From Hillsborough, to Grenfell to the appalling mishandling of the recent Covid crisis in care homes, we have never so badly needed a means to hold the government to account and we know that the Human Rights Act does that extremely effectively.

“It took ordinary people a very long time to win these rights and we mustn’t let politicians take them away with the stroke of a pen. This looks worryingly like the latest power-grabbing move from a government that doesn’t like limits on its powers or judges who tell them when they break the law.

“What the government is proposing is also a gift to tyrants the world over. How can the UK call on other countries to respect human rights protections and legal responsibilities if they are busy ripping up the rule book at home?”