Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

Although it is for the chop, the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council is not going quietly. It has just produced a report setting out seven principle of administrative justice that all those delivering services to the public should bear in mind.

The Council says that a good administrative justice system should:

• make users and their needs central, treating them with fairness and respect at all times;

• enable people to challenge decisions and seek redress using procedures that are independent, open and appropriate for the matter involved;

• keep people fully informed and empower them to resolve their problems as quickly and comprehensively as possible;

• lead to well-reasoned, lawful and timely outcomes;

• be coherent and consistent;

• work proportionately and efficiently;

• adopt the highest standards of behaviour, seek to learn from experience and continuously improve.

While these may seem in many ways obvious, it is surprising how often these basic messages are forgotten. Their report also contains a self-assessment toolkit, which administrators can use as a template against which they can measure their organisation. This is the sort of valuable work that will be lost once the Council finally disappears.

For more detail, see:
http://www.ajtc.gov.uk/docs/principles_web.pdf