Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council ... - Consultation Hub

Bernard Quoroli
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swcere1y
complex and fragmented landscape which includes departmental and local government
decision making. internal review, proportionate dispute resolution, complaint handlers,
current review. l look forward to its reinvention when that lesson is learned.
for an oversight body but rather a need to releam lessons which are being ignored in the
tribunal justice into a mega department does not mark the end of the chapter in the need
ombudsman, tribunals and courts and what they can teach each other, The absorption of
which does or could fulfill the functions of the AJTC or indeed provide coherence to a
Administrative justice has always been a fragile flower. There is no other body currently
Against this background the three tests adopted for making judgemerits when applied to
eight years of working closely with a civil service department have led me to expect.
the AJTC seem to me to be shallow, self serving and less intellectually honest than my
statutory right of access less conflicted in making the case for citizen fairness and
meantime it is the only game in town.
redress. Such an approach is not inconsistent with a need to save money but in the
delivery and fairness. There is a case to be made for a fully independent body with a
legitimate goals (cost reduction> without attending enough to substance in service
its weakness in challenging short term thinking and the pursuit by departments of
necessarily arguing for retention of the AJTC in its current form, Its closeness to a
misunderstood what is happening and put me right if they only had the time. The cyclical
loss of continuity and experience in government is not a new thing. But am not
I
government department and the judiciary and limited remit has in part been a cause of
No doubt there are defenders of the current sense of direction who will argue that I have
AJTC and at worst to willfully misrepresent the need for continued oversight and
cosh to deliver savings before they move on to their next project in another role or
this constructive challenge Who will carry the lessons of experience constructively and
cost reduction exercises just outside the tribunal doors. Who will be around to provide
department and who are driven by this imperative, at best to undervalue the role of the
challenge
baby out with the bath water. The AJTC has also pointed out repeatedly that there is a
giving approach and does not deprive people of safe redress could avoid throwing the
intended. Time and energy spent on the orderly encouragement of conflict resolution
persistently to ministers and senior civil servants who are under a perfectly legitimate
reduction when applied in appropriate settings, we have pointed out that lack of a
dispute resolution —
something
strategic approach and short term diversions may have the opposite effect to that
outside the courts so that diversion only takes place within a structured and confidence
pressing need to address early dispute resolution as well as experimenting with a few
which addressed correctly has great potential for cost
In relation to the most recent magic bullet diversion of cases through proportionate
jurisdictional areas. It requires much more than a short term rush to find quick financial
fixes.