Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

i. Streamlining procedures and encouraging a balanced approach: We are

working to simplify our procedures and put entire services online where

possible, carefully designed to be intuitive and easy to follow. Many relatively

straightforward tribunal decisions do not require full physical hearings, so where

appropriate, judges will be making decisions based on written representations,

hearings will be held over telephone or video conference and specially trained

case officers will help cases progress through the system. All of these changes

will make the process quicker and easier to deal with for all parties involved in a

case.

ii. Digitising the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal: This will be one of the

first services to be moved entirely online, with an end-to-end digital process that

will be faster and easier to use for people that use it.

iii. Simplifying panel composition: Another factor in taking a balanced, tailored

approach to tribunal cases is making sure the panels that make decisions in

tribunals are designed to best suit the circumstances of the case. Most tribunals

currently reflect historic arrangements that may be out of date and do not tailor

the expertise of the panel according to the case. We propose to revise the

current arrangements for setting panel composition to make sure that that

appropriate expertise is focussed on those cases that need it. We would

welcome views on how best to achieve this.

iv. Reforming employment tribunals: The Employment Tribunals deal with a huge

volume of claims every year – c. 83,000 in 2015/16. They work on similar

principles to many other tribunals and the civil courts, but currently have an

entirely separate structure, including a specific appeals tribunal. We are

considering whether the new approaches being adopted elsewhere in the

justice system could be applied to the employment jurisdiction.