Judicial Review

Part of Orders of the Day — Financial Services and Markets Bill – in the House of Commons at 4:31 pm on 1 February 2000.

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Photo of Stephen Timms Stephen Timms The Financial Secretary to the Treasury 4:31, 1 February 2000

I am grateful for that guidance, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

It is of course the case that any body exercising public functions is subject to judicial review when it behaves in a way that no reasonable comparable body would have behaved, and there is no provision in the Bill restricting anyone's right to seek judicial review of the FSA's decisions in appropriate circumstances. Some of the speeches by Conservative Members implied that there is. There is not. The High Court will of course always take into account such matters as whether there is an alternative remedy that should be exhausted before resorting to judicial review. Where an appropriate remedy is provided under the Bill—before the tribunal, say—it is plainly right to use it rather than wasting the High Court's time on something that has its own special remedy.

New clause 43 is unnecessary. One or two Conservative Members have fastened on particular clauses whose wording, they believe, would make it difficult for judicial review to be pursued. That matter should be dealt with in the debate on those clauses. New clause 43 does not advance the cause that they seek to make. It is unnecessary. Worse, it is unclear what the effect would be of including such a provision in the Bill. I understand that no other legislation contains such provision. Its absence does not impede judicial review elsewhere, and it would not in this case. Moreover, it would cause people to ask themselves whether judicial review could not be resorted to in connection with other legislation that did not contain such wording.