Tribunal Reform in Northern Ireland – An Update
Les Allamby, director of Law Centre (NI) and a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee provides an update on administrative justice and tribunals reform in Northern Ireland.
Progress towards tribunal reform continues to inch slowly forward in Northern Ireland.
Unlike in Britain, tribunal reform in Northern Ireland is mainly confined to those tribunals with a United Kingdom wide remit (for example, immigration, tax and VAT tribunals).
The Leggatt review in 2001 had noted the importance of the separate jurisdiction and devolved administration but stated that the report's recommendations applied equally strongly to the tribunal system in Northern Ireland. In fact, it is arguable that the Leggatt review observation that the (then) collection of tribunals had grown up in an entirely haphazard way with variations of practices and approaches and virtually no coherence stands today in Northern Ireland. Moreover the Council of Tribunals' responsibilities did not extend to tribunals managed by Northern Ireland government departments leaving a significant gap in oversight and accountability.
In November 2005, The Appeals Service, (then) Department for Constitutional Affairs and Law Centre (NI) organised a conference in Belfast on tribunal reform to inject some impetus into the reform process. In March 2006 the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that new unified tribunal arrangements would be introduced.
Progress since then has been painfully slow. A variation of the reform in Britain has been introduced with the Northern Ireland Court Service taking the lead role in the creation of parking adjudication and valuation tribunals (local councils in Northern Ireland raise revenue through rates rather than council tax). Reform of charity law recently passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly will create a charities tribunal later this year which will be administered again from within the Northern Ireland Court Service.
The lead government departments on tribunal reform are the Court Service and the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM). Herein lies the rub. The Northern Ireland Court Service appear considerably keener on progressing tribunal reform than their counterparts at OFMDFM. A paper on tribunal reform was agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive earlier this year charting the way forward under either devolved arrangements for justice and policing or in the absence of such devolution.
As a result, a cross-Departmental working group to examine future administrative arrangements has been set up jointly chaired by OFMDFM and the Court Service. The working group is to report back to the Northern Ireland Executive in the autumn.
In order to maintain the momentum for reform the Law Centre organised a round table seminar under the Chatham House rule in July 2008. Lord Justice Carnwath and Lord Tony Newton of Braintree were the principal speakers. Those attending included key figures in the tribunal judiciary, the director of the Northern Ireland Court Service, key officials within NICtS and OFMDFM and voluntary sector advice organisations. The seminar examined progress to date on tribunal reform in Britain followed by a discussion on how to move in Northern Ireland. The seminar discussion revealed the considerable frustration among tribunal judiciary and the voluntary sector at the pace of change.
The remaining imponderable is devolution of justice. Local wisdom is that devolution of justice and policing will happen, the only question is when (my personal guess is next Spring). When devolution happens, the next question is where will tribunal reform be placed in the new minister for justice's in tray?
One clear conclusion emerging from the recent seminar was the need to engage members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on the importance of tribunal reform. To this end, the Law Centre is seeking funding for research into the views of tribunal users and stakeholders towards identifying issues that a future AJTC in Northern Ireland might wish to carry forward. In addition, a research paper will be produced to set out an agenda for action on tribunal reform. This work will feed into a conference in 2009 which will seek to involve members of the local Assembly.
The presence and supportive remarks of Lord Justice Carnwath and Lord Newton illustrated the considerable goodwill there is towards tribunal reform in Northern Ireland. Having missed the boat once following the Franks report it is vital that history does not repeat itself fifty years later.
Les Allamby is the director of Law Centre (NI) and a member of the Social Security Advisory Committee