The official watchdog for complaints – Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) – says the government is making it more difficult for the public to challenge decisions made by the state.
In its report Securing Fairness and Redress: Administrative Justice at Risk? the AJTC expresses concerns about plans that limit access to advice and representation and introduce fees in some jurisidictions.
These changes come on top of already long delays in getting appeals heard. Richard Thomas, chairman of the AJTC, cites the introduction of employment tribunal fees, forcing people to take their housing case to local councillors, and delays in hearing cases.
The Guardian has reported from the launch of the report in which Richard Thomas outlined a number of government tactics to choke off “the demand for redress”, which go beyond cuts in legal aid:
- Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement this month of a fee for bringing an employment tribunal from 2013. Thomas points out that a family of four going to an immigration tribunal already face a £560 charge.
- Government’s plans to force anyone complaining to the Housing Ombudsman to first see
their local councillor. - On social security complaints handling AJTC found that the average time from receipt of appeal by the Department for Work and Pensions to hearing was 29 weeks, or 202 days. The longest time was 60 weeks — 423 days.
The report argues that suppressing demand ignores appeal success rates of around 40%, with hundreds of thousands of governmental decisions over-turned every year. These include around 50,000 successful Employment and Support Allowance appeals, 20,000 successful Disability Living Allowance appeals and 60,000 successful Immigration appeals.
The report sets out an agenda where long-term strategic change in five areas is required to secure the administrative justice system:
- better and more stable laws and regulations, especially in the areas of welfare benefits and immigration
- a ‘Right First Time’ culture in government decision-making
- proper access to help, advice and representation for citizens pursuing redress against government decisions
- further reforms to ensure coherent access to administrative justice across the whole of the UK
- new and proportionate models for resolving disputes faster and in more user-friendly
ways.
The AJTC is to be abolished under the government’s plans to cut quangos, with the Ministry of Justice taking over the AJTC’s responsibilities from April 2012.