Clause 2
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill
9:00 am
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
Taken together, this clause and schedule 1 create the post of senior president of tribunals. They set out the procedure for filling that post and provide for him to represent the views of tribunal members—an important provision. We indeed have a “him” designate at the moment, although his post rather than his gender is designated and we hope to turn it quickly into a reality. As I am sure everybody knows, Lord Justice Carnwath is the senior president designate. The clause and schedule closely follow Sir Andrew Leggatt’s recommendation that the leadership of the tribunals system should promote
“by leadership and co-ordination, both consistency of decision-making and uniformity of practice and procedure”.
The senior president will be a free-standing senior judicial official who will oversee the tribunal judiciary, and his powers and duties are set out in the Bill. Furthermore, not only is his office clearly independent of the Executive, but in carrying out his functions, the senior president will not be subject to the direction of the chief justices responsible for the courts. Clause 2 places a duty on the senior president to ensure that tribunals are accessible, that proceedings are fair and are handled quickly and efficiently, that members are expert and that innovative dispute resolution methods are developed in respect of the type of cases that come before tribunals. Those criteria are based on the long-standing principles underlying the jurisdiction of tribunals which go back to the Franks report in the 1950s.
The White Paper “Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals” signalled that the senior president would
“provide a clear single voice able to speak for the tribunal judiciary collectively.”
Paragraphs 13 and 14 to schedule 1 enable the senior president to do just that—represent tribunal members’ views to Parliament, to the Lord Chancellor and to Ministers of the Crown generally, giving the tribunals a distinct, unified voice for the first time.
It is crucial to ensure that the right person of the right calibre is appointed. Schedule 1 provides two possible routes by which any vacancy for the senior president position may be filled. The first will be when the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the Lord President of the Court of Session and the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland all agree on the nomination of a lord or lady justice of appeal, or a member of the inner house of Court of Session, as a suitable candidate.
As an alternative, the Lord Chancellor wouldask the Judicial Appointments Commission to selecta candidate for recommendation for appointment.The process for doing that follows as closely as is appropriate the process under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 for appointing heads of division.
The successful candidate will be appointed by Her Majesty the Queen. To underpin the independenceof the role, the senior president, unless disabled by a permanent infirmity or incapacitated from resigning, may be removed from office only by Her Majestyon an address presented to her by both Houses of Parliament.