New AJTC Chairman's first conference
The morning session provided delegates with the opportunity to hear about the state of administrative justice across the UK. Senior President of Tribunals, Sir Robert Carnwath (pdf, 0.1MB) analysed the progress made since the 2004 White Paper "Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals", highlighting areas of progress and suggesting that the next major challenge for administrative justice is helping to improve the quality of original decision making. This theme was continued by Bridget Prentice (pdf, 0.1MB), MP for Lewisham and Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice, who spoke of the need to work on the 'end-to-end' experience of users.
The impact of the intricacies of devolution on administrative justice in Great Britain was explored by Richard Henderson (pdf, 2.5MB), Chairman of the Scottish Committee of the AJTC, and Peter Tyndall (pdf, 0.1MB), the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, while developments in Northern Ireland were outlined by Les Allamby (pdf, 0.1MB), Director of the Law Centre (NI).
In the afternoon, Walter Merricks (pdf, 0.1MB) entertained delegates with a thought provoking talk on private sector ombudsmen schemes and their place in the administrative justice landscape. Jonathan Spencer (pdf, 0.1MB), AJTC Council Member, put the concept of an administrative justice landscape in the context of work being undertaken by the AJTC to elaborate principles of administrative justice.
The Conference also provided new Chairman, Richard Thomas (pdf, 0.1MB), with an opportunity to meet with a wide range of representatives from the administrative justice world and to discuss with them future directions for the AJTC.