UKAJI

By Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) In January 2022, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published its report into the handling, by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of the migration of a disability benefit claimant, Mrs U, to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). More specifically, the key issues are: (a) whether the … Continue reading →

The last several years have been busy times for public lawyers. This will continue whoever becomes Prime Minister following Boris Johnson’s resignation. It is, therefore, critical that researchers have a strong understanding of how they can best  engage with and influence politicians and policymakers, and that practitioners appreciate how litigation can best achieve practical change … Continue reading →

SEND reforms: Mandatory mediation in administrative justice The newly published and long-awaited SEND Green Paper proposes ‘strengthening redress’, including making mediation mandatory in appeals of local authority decisions on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). This post explores why this proposal should be a concern to all those involved in administrative justice. Background Special educational … Continue reading →

Experiments in Automating Immigration Systems By Tatiana Kazim, Public Law Project and Equal Education Law Centre (South Africa) Governments around the world are embracing automated decision making (ADM). The potential benefits are well-rehearsed: faster, cheaper, more accurate, more consistent decision-making. Equally, the dangers posed by government ADM systems have been exposed by several high-profile scandals … Continue reading →

The Administrative Justice Council has published its April 2022 newsletter and it is available here. The AJC’s website is available here: https://ajc-justice.co.uk/ and the AJC can be followed on Twitter @ajc_justice.

Robert Thomas, University of Manchester Should people underpaid their state pensions receive not just arrears for those underpayments, but also the interest on them in order to make up for inflation? The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) thinks not, but the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) thinks they should. The recent Parliamentary and Health Service … Continue reading →

Mustaqim Iqbal (University of Oxford) and Lee Marsons (University of Essex) Reforming judicial review remedies is back on the legislative agenda. The last time similar proposals were suggested, the result was section 84 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (CJCA), which inserted section 31(2A)-(2C) and (3C)-(3F) into the Senior Courts Act 1981. This … Continue reading →

Financial Remedy Recommendations made by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) This blog presents some data concerning financial compensation recommendations made by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) acquired through a freedom of information request. When the PHSO makes a finding of maladministration or service failure, it will consider … Continue reading →

The Transforming Complaint Resolution website has been created by Chris Gill, Carolyn Hirst and Jane Williams. Collectively we are academics, researchers and practitioners who have an interest in complaint handling, conflict resolution, and administrative justice. Together we believe that much of the transformational potential of complaints remains unrealised and unrecognised. And our common intent is … Continue reading →

Immigration complaints (Part I) By Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) This is the first of three blogs that consider immigration complaints, an important topic of administrative justice. This first blog will examine the key trends, features, and criticisms of immigration complaints. The second blog will examine complaint outcomes and the importance of government collecting data … Continue reading →

Administrative leapfrogging – The Communities Secretary and avoiding the devolved middle-men By Lee Marsons (University of Essex) On 6 July 2021, the Local Government Association held its annual conference at which the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (hereafter ‘the Secretary of State’) delivered a keynote address. This was a speech of … Continue reading →

The Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman’s Own-Initiative Investigation into Personal Independence Payments By Robert Thomas (University of Manchester) The publication of the own-initiative investigation by the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO) into Personal Independence Payments (PIP) is the first such investigation anywhere in the UK. It is a matter of considerable importance. At present, … Continue reading →

Applied administrative justice research: why we all need more of it Joe Tomlinson Administrative justice research has made significant progress in illuminating the nature of administrative decision-making, redress processes, and the interface between citizen and state. While the field is now diverse, both methodologically and in terms of the subjects of study, it consists almost … Continue reading →

Given the decision of the Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL) not to make publicly available responses received as part of its call for evidence, UKAJI has decided to bring together in one place IRAL responses which have been made public. Should you wish to include an IRAL responses on this page, please contact Lee … Continue reading →