The service said its statistics show that an increase in drug offences by women was reflected in the rise in the female prison population.. Robert Wilson was desperate to unwind after another gruelling shift in the kitchen. It was the middle of July last year, and the night air was still warm, so the chef wandered out to the car park opposite the David Lloyd Leisure club in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, where he worked. Leaning against a car, the 21-year-old put his hand in his pocket and took out a lump of cannabis. Robert Wilson was desperate to unwind after another gruelling shift in the kitchen.

It was the middle of July last year, and the night air was still warm, so the chef wandered out to the car park opposite the David Lloyd Leisure club in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, where he worked. Leaning against a car, the 21-year-old put his hand in his pocket and took out a lump of cannabis.
As Mr Wilson cleared his lungs of kitchen fumes, he saw a group of security guards striding towards him. They asked to check his pockets and within minutes called the police. Instead of spending the evening relaxing, the chef found himself handcuffed and marched off to a police station where he was interrogated for possession of a class B drug.The officers who interviewed eventually him let him off with a warning, but Mr Wilson’s employers were not so lenient. Three weeks after being suspended, he was sacked.But Mr Wilson was fortunate.

His lawyer, John Littler, was fully aware of the potential benefit for his client of the Human Rights Act. He told Mr Wilson that he could use the new legislation to argue that his human rights had been infringed. Under article six, Mr Wilson had a right to a fair trial ­ David Lloyd Leisure had breached this by questioning him about his case while the police were still investigating.The challenge was successful, and at an employment tribunal last month the panel ruled that the club had been wrong to fire him. The tribunal did agree that David Lloyd management had a right to be concerned about the impact of drugs on a health club, but said it should have let Mr Wilson off with a formal warning.This case is just one of 300 brought since the Human Rights Act came into force on 2 October 2000, and the first in which the Act has been successfully used at an employment tribunal to separate a person’s work from their private life.The Human Rights Act is certainly working ­ but perhaps not in the way that might have been expected. Heralded as the most significant piece of legislation since the Magna Carta, this bill of rights was predicted by legal experts to create an extra 15 years’ worth of court work for staff as the aggrieved and oppressed flocked to demand justice.Six months later, figures released by the Lord Chancellor’s Department show that 303 ­ 17 per cent ­ of the cases lodged after the Act was implemented raised human rights issues, some of which, experts say, would never have reached the courts before 2 October.Francesca Klug, the director of the Human Rights Act research unit at King’s College, London, was involved in helping to get the Act up and running.