The Tribunals Revolution

Lord Justice Carnwath, Senior President Designate of Tribunals

Tribunals Service sets out its blueprint for reform

Peter Handcock, Chief Executive, Tribunals Service

Tribunals reform: the issues for Wales

His Honour Judge Hickinbottom, Designated Civil Judge for Wales

Northern Ireland administrative justice reform

Les Allamby, Northern Ireland Law Centre

Asylum Support Tribunal: support for justice, justice for support

Richard Dunstan, Citizens Advice

Disability benefits: Improving the experience of customers

Alex Hardie, Glasgow Disability Benefits Centre

Administrative Tribunals in Denmark

Jon Andersen, Office of the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman

Disability Discrimination in the Public Sector

Jocelyn Murphy, Disability Law Service

Forum of Tribunal Organisations

Derek Searby, District Chairman, Social Security & Child Support Appeals Tribunal

Legal Foundations of Tribunals in 19th Century England – a review

Susan Howdle, former member of the Council on Tribunals

Council on Tribunals: Conference

In June the Council hosted a conference on 'Advancing Administrative Justice in Wales', its second national event in Wales. Opened by Assembly First Minister Rhodri Morgan, the conference provided an opportunity to discuss issues of common interest and to identify future priorities in advancing administrative justice in Wales.

Tribunals Service: Welsh Language Scheme

The Tribunals Service's support for the principles of the Welsh Language Act 1993, has been set out in its Welsh Language Scheme which is currently out for public consultation.

MHRT Round Table Discussion

The Council held a round table discussion with key representatives from the Mental Health Review Tribunal's key stakeholder groups to discuss the findings of a recent MHRT stakeholder survey.

Legal Services Reform: Special Report

Zahida Manzoor, Legal Services Complaints Commissioner and Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales, has published a Special Report offering her views on proposed changes under the Legal Services Bill. The reforms mean that her powers as the LSO will be transferred to the new Office for Legal Complaints (which will be a new ombudsman scheme) and the Legal Services Board will subsume her powers as Legal Services Complaints Commissioner.

The Legal Services Complaints Commission have also recently published their Annual Report and Accounts 2006-2007.

LGO Special Report: 'Local partnerships and citizen redress'

The Local Government Ombudsmen have published a special report 'Local partnerships and citizen redress'. The report highlights the difficulties members of the public often have in knowing who they should complain to, and how, where there is a partnership of service providers. It also suggests how governance and processes can be improved for the benefit of the citizen.

Parliamentary Ombudsman: 'A just alternative or just an alternative'?

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, spoke at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the beginning of July. Her speech was entitled 'The PHSO and Paths to Justice: A just alternative or just an alternative'.

BIOA: Guide to principles of good complaint handling (pdf, 450KB)

The British and Irish Ombudsman Association (BIOA) has published a Guide to Good Complaint Handling. The Guide seeks to distil the experience and expertise of BIOA's membership. It is intended to help existing ombudsmen and other complaint reviewers with self audit and provide guidance for those contemplating new schemes or applying for BIOA membership. It is hoped the Guide will support the objectives of BIOA which include the aim to formulate and promote standards of best practice to be met by Ombudsmen in the performance of their duties.

Ombudsman criticises manner of school hearings

In May 2007, the Local Government Ombudsman, Tony Redmond, published a report of his investigation against the admissions appeal panel contracted by Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham. The School Governors (as the admissions authority) engaged Kent County Council to provide the admissions appeal panel and its clerk to consider the appeals after the applications of ten children were refused.The School is a foundation school and is selective by academic ability. Although the children had been unsuccessful in selection tests, the school was not full and the parents took up their right to appeal against the refusal of places.

The Ombudsman identified a number of faults in the way the appeals were handled, concluding that 'this maladministration deprived the complainants of the opportunity to have their appeals considered in a fair and sensitive manner'. In particular, the report criticised the panel's approach to and questioning of parents as being 'wholly inappropriate'.

Schools Adjudicator: admission by ballot is fair (doc, 106KB)

The Schools Adjudicator has rejected parents' objections to secondary school admission arrangements determined by Brighton and Hove City Council for the September 2008 admissions round. In his determination, the Adjudicator concluded, among other things, that the use of a ballot system for tie-breaking purposes in oversubscribed catchment area cases was not subjective and is in any event specifically allowed by the new Code of Practice on School Admissions.

SENTW: Mock Hearing DVD Released

The Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales (SENTW) has produced a mock hearing DVD designed as a useful resource for parents and representatives who might attend a tribunal hearing. The hearing is based on an actual appeal with the appropriate names changed.

The DVD shows a Tribunal panel meeting to discuss the hearing (the pre-hearing), the hearing itself and the panel's discussions after the hearing has finished (the post hearing). The DVD was filmed during a training session at SENTW and used members as well as volunteers from the LEA and voluntary sectors to participate in the exercise. A copy of the DVD can be obtained by calling 01597 829800.

Green Paper: The Governance of Britain

The Government has outlined its proposals for constitutional renewal. The Green Paper 'The Governance of Britain' discusses how to modernise the role of the executive in the system of governance. Proposed reforms include surrendering or limiting powers which should not be exercised exclusively by the executive – including powers pertaining to the appointment of judges.

UCL Constitution Unit:
Constitutional Reform Programme briefing

The Constitution Unit has outlined a detailed checklist of options facing Gordon Brown if he wants to deliver a new constitutional settlement, in terms of process, machinery and substantive policies. Divided in two sections, the first part of the briefing looks at the overall framework for delivering the constitutional reform programme and the second part focuses on individual policies.

Consultation: Draft Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill

The Cabinet Office is consulting on a draft Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill which will establish the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) as a statutory corporation. The overall objective of LBRO will be to secure more effective and less burdensome approaches to the way in which regulations are enforced by local authorities. The Bill also incorporates proposals that implement the key recommendations from the Macrory Review; providing for Monetary Penalties, fixed and variable; Discretionary Requirements; Cessation Notices and Enforcement Undertakings. All of these (except for Enforcement Undertakings) will have an appeal route open to them.

Consultation: Regulators' Compliance Code

The Cabinet Office is also seeking comments on a draft Regulator's Compliance Code and the proposed content of the Listing Order, specifying the regulatory functions to which both the Code and the principles of good regulation should apply. The Code will require regulators to have regard to important principles in their work when they set out enforcement policies.

Planning Inspectorate guidance:
Local Development Frameworks (pdf, 1MB)

A comprehensive guidance document has been produced by the Planning Inspectorate, which seeks to expand on the 'Early Experiences' leaflet (doc, 330KB) published by the Inspectorate at the end of last year. The guidance focuses on lessons learnt from examining over 100 Development Plan Documents (DPDs) submitted as at June 2007, which have predominantly comprised Core Strategies. It also incorporates a note provided by Communities and Local Government (CLG) on the waste content of Core Strategies which will be of interest to all Local Planning Authorities (LPAs).

Valuation Tribunal Service: New Chief Executive

Dr Christina Townsend, previously Chief Executive of the Appeals Service, has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the Valuation Tribunal Service.

Council on Tribunals: New Members

The Council is delighted to welcome two new members in June 2007.

Bronwyn McKenna is a solicitor specialising in employment, trade union and public inquiry law. Bronwyn is currently a Director at UNISON, where she leads the union's work on organising, member representation and participation. She is also the principal legal advisor to UNISON's National Executive Council and Senior Management Group. She sits on the Central Arbitration Committee and was formerly a member of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. Bronwyn will sit on the Council's Social Affairs and User Issues Committee.

Brian Thompson is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool and his teaching and research cover the whole field of administrative justice. He is a Member of the Panel of Specialist Advisers to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, and Consultant on Public Law to the Northern Ireland Ombudsman. Brian will also sit on the Council's Social Affairs and User Issues Committee.

Scottish Committee

The Scottish Committee of the Council on Tribunals welcomes the appointment of two new members – Mr Michael Menlowe and Mrs Eileen MacDonald – from 1 July 2007. Mr Menlowe is a retired academic and resides in Edinburgh. Mrs MacDonald is a practising Solicitor with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and resides in Linlithgow. Both appointments will be for four years.

Nuffield Foundation:
Administrative Justice Funding Initiative

The Nuffield Foundation has now published final details of all strands of work launched under its funding initiative on Administrative Justice. As readers of Adjust will know, the Foundation is seeking to fund work that is squarely in the context of administrative justice and the final strands of work on choice of redress and quality have just been published. The four strands of work the Foundation is considering are: initial handling/filtering selection of cases; feedback to front-line decision-makers; work starting from questions about the choice of redress mechanism; and questions about quality.

Literacy and Access to Administrative Justice in Canada

The Council on Canadian Administrative Tribunals (CCAT) has published a guide to 'plain language' writing, giving clear and detailed explanations of what tribunals are and how they work, and an extensive glossary of legal terms defined in plain language.

Mental Health Seminar: Australia (pdf, 419KB)

The Mental Health Review Board of Victoria, Australia, is marking its 20th Anniversary by holding a seminar on 6-7 December 2007 reviewing its processes and looking at policy and practice issues, particularly the impact of the Human Rights Charter which comes into effect in January 2008.