UKAJI’s February 2019 update

Here is UKAJI’s summary of administrative justice news and events for February 2019. If you have a suggestion for inclusion in this month’s or future updates, please contact Lee Marsons at lm17598@essex.ac.uk or @LeeGTMarsons.

UKAJI blog posts

• Lee Marsons posted a summary of the PHSO’s January 2019 evidence session before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee: ‘The PHSO at the PACAC: Rob Behrens and the Public Administration Committee’
• Chris Gill and Carolyn Hirst posted their guidelines for employers on handling complaints against employees: ‘Being Complained About: Good Practice Principles and Guidelines’
• Joe Tomlinson posted a series of three blog posts on the interplay between Brexit and administrative justice, available here: Part I, Part II, Part III
• Jennie Bunt posted a summary of the findings of her doctoral research on the collection of public debts by local authorities in Wales: ‘Defining vulnerability in the enforcement of public debts’

Additional blog posts

• Margaret Doyle posted a blog entitled ‘Anecdote rich but data poor: The exponential growth of mediation in a shadowy corner of administrative justice’ on the growth of mediation in SEND disputes
• Margaret Doyle posted a blog entitled ‘Ombuds gender pay gap – an update’ on progress made by various ombuds in eliminating the gender pay gap among their employees
• Margaret Doyle posted a blog entitled ‘New research resource on ombuds’, which summarised Hertog & Kirkham’s new text Research Handbook on the Ombudsman
• Simon Hoffmann posted a blog concerning the incorporation of international human rights treaties in Welsh legislation and the enforcement of those rights in the administrative state
• Penelope Gibbs posted a blog on tribunal reform and challenged the potential future development via court digitalisation that tribunal hearings be available to the public online
• Kate Summers posted a blog on The Alleged Simplicity of Universal Credit and the Lived Experience of Benefit Claimants

Research

• Natalie Byrom published her work entitled ‘Developing the Detail: Evaluating the impact of court reform in England and Wales on access to justice’ on potential definitions of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘fairness’ in court reform programmes
• Joe Tomlinson and Byron Karemba published their article entitled Tribunal Justice, Brexit, and Digitalisation: Immigration Appeals in the First-tier Tribunal in the Journal of Immigration, Asylum & Nationality Law

Ombuds affairs

• PHSO determined that the death of an elderly woman after a routine hip replacement operation was avoidable
• PHSO released a podcast via Radio Ombudsman on ‘Avoiding the avoidable to improve the safety of NHS care’, which notably involved a conversation between Rob Behrens and Sir Liam Donaldson, formerly the Chief Medical Officer for England
• LGSCO determined that care workers employed by the Radis Group in Reading had been late getting medical attention for a vulnerable woman which resulted in her death
• LGSCO determined that East Riding council did not do enough to protect a toddler from harm perpetrated by his mother’s violent partner, leaving the child with life-long injuries
• LGSCO determined that a motorist was not caused injustice by the imposition of Mersey Gateway toll bridge charges
• Scottish Public Services Ombud published the conclusion of 56 cases before the Scottish Parliament
• Northern Ireland Public Services Ombud partially upheld a complaint against Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in their administration of a house extension application
• NIPSO upheld a complaint in their Investigation of a complaint against the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust on whether the Trust took sufficient action to minimise the risk of falls in hospital
• NIPSO partially upheld a complaint in its Investigation of a complaint against Ard Mhacha Nursing Home, Armagh concerning the sufficiency of its action to minimise the risk of falls in mentally vulnerable patients
• NIPSO partially upheld another complaint against the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in a case involving the contraction of pnuemonia
• PHSO released its 2018 staff survey results
• PHSO published guidance outlining Information for NHS trusts on the respective roles of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and NHS Resolution in resolving NHS complaints and claims

Cases

• R (Y and Achieving for Children) v London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames [2019] EWHC 364 (Admin), on the lawfulness of the defendant council’s school consultation concerning ‘SEND Futures’

Events

• The Administrative Justice Council launched its new website
• The PHSO, Rob Behrens, held his second annual lecture entitled ‘Avoiding the avoidable’
• The Grenfell Tower Inquiry issued an update on its work and instructed an expert witness on fire regulation and legislation
• The Administrative Justice Council held a pop-up event for academic and practitioner engagement
• New research fellows joined the National Assembly for Wales, including Sarah Nason on administrative justice and the role for the Welsh Assembly
• Holyrood Magazine held an event discussing how to ‘improve complaints procedures for all‘. Participants included Chris Gill from the University of Glasgow, Alison Marron from the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, and Thomas Docherty from Which?

News items

• The BBC reported that the PSNI had yet to disclose documents to the Police Ombud of Northern Ireland related to the Sean Graham Bookmakers killings in 1992
• The BBC reported on the tribunal challenge undertaken by the parents of an autistic girl who were concerned with her school’s provision of SEND opportunities
• The Financial Times reported comments by the Financial Ombudsman Service that financial firms must recognise the importance of showing empathy to vulnerable clients

Upcoming in March 2019…

• A blog post from Margaret Doyle exploring the academic-practitioner engagement event held by the AJC noted above
• A blog post from Maurice Sunkin reviewing Hertogh & Kirkham’s Research Handbook on the Ombudsman
• A blog post from Gavin McBurnie on the January 2019 report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Consumer Protection on the ombuds system
• A blog post from Natalie Byrom on her recent research on court and tribunals reform and access to justice noted above
• A blog post from Sarah Nason on her series of four workshops on administrative justice in Wales