UKAJI May 2019 round-up

Here is UKAJI’s summary of important administrative justice news and events for May 2019. If you have anything to add to this contribution or future round-ups, please contact Lee Marsons at lm17598@essex.ac.uk.

UKAJI blog posts and research profiles

• Jo Hynes (University of Exeter) posted a blog related to her observations on the use of video link technology in immigration bail hearings;
• Jo Hynes (University of Exeter) posted a research profile about her research on legal geographies in immigration bail hearings;
• Paul Daly (University of Ottawa) posted a blog entitled ‘Big Data in Public Administration: Rewards, Risk, and Responses’;
• Paul Daly (University of Ottawa) posted a research profile about his research into artificial intelligence and administrative justice;
• Heidi Bancroft of the Administrative Justice Council (AJC) posted a short notice inviting attendance at the AJC’s academic panel workshop on mapping administrative justice in Wales and Scotland. The event is to be held on Wednesday 19^th June 2019.

Research publications

• Joe Tomlinson (King’s College, London) published his book Justice in the Digital State: Assessing the next revolution in administrative justice via Policy Press;
• Paul Hunt, ‘How to Advance Social Rights without Jeopardising the Human Rights Act 1998’ (2019) Political Quarterly;
• The Advice Services Alliance launched a research project seeking to evaluate the provision of social welfare benefits in London;
• Joe Tomlinson published his literature review submitted to the Commons’ Justice Committee on the impact of courts and tribunals reform for administrative justice and access to justice;
• Liberty published its report into the economic impacts and consequences of indefinite immigration detention in the UK;
• Daniel Del Gobbo published an article on the intersection between queer theory and alternative dispute resolution;

Ombuds affairs

• Kate Eisenstein, Assistant Director of Insight and Public Affairs at the PHSO, published a blog post on 24^th May 2019 concerning how the PHSO’s 2017 report on eating disorders in the NHS assisted Parliament to hold NHS bodies to account for medical failings;
• The PHSO determined that a male patient of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust had to have the same operation twice after the initial medical team was unsuccessful at removing a painful lump from his back;
• The LGSCO determined that Birmingham City Council’s transport policy for adults with special educational needs was inadequate after it required a mother to drive her son five hours to a specialist college;
• The LGSCO determined that Lancashire County Council provided inadequate support to two vulnerable children placed in the care of their aunt and uncle;
• The LGSCO considered and found faulty Maidstone Council’s policy of requiring a disabled man to pay for reviewing of housing application decisions;
• The LGSCO responded to new Ministry of Justice guidance on providing scrutiny to local council decisions;
• The LGSCO criticised Medway Council for failing to review its school transport policies after an earlier complaint;
• The LGSCO determined that a vulnerable man was placed at risk by being put in inadequate care settings for eighteen months by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council;
• The LGSCO determined that Hackney Council produced a forty eight week delay in producing an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) for two children with special educational needs;
• The LGSCO determined that Stockport Council was incorrectly declining to grant parking permits to residents of new build properties in Stockport town centre;
• The LGSCO determined that Oadby and Wigston Borough Council has refused to recognise its obligations in relation to a homeless domestic violence victim;
• The LGSCO responded to the Civil Enforcement Association’s (CIVEA) announcement that it would no longer review complaints on behalf of its members;
• The NIPSO determined that Belfast Health and Social Care Trust failed to arrange a suitable care package for a patient with a humerus fracture;
• The SPSO published its annual statistics on its caseload for 2018-19;
• The SPSO laid its findings in 49 cases before the Scottish Parliament;
• The SPSO launched a consultation on its Draft National Whistleblowing Standards.

Parliamentary affairs:

• The House of Commons Justice Select Committee published an update on the Government’s tribunals and courts reform programme;
• The House of Commons Justice Committee heard evidence from witnesses on the impact of courts and tribunals reform;

Events

• The Ombudsman Association held a workshop on 21-22 May 2019 entitled ‘Driving improvements: collaboration and peer learning’;
• The Department for Work and Pensions published a statistical notice about the development of new experimental statistics on the measurement of poverty in the UK in addition to Households Below Average Income National Statistics;

Cases

• R (DA) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2019] UKSC 21 on the compatibility of the benefit cap with Articles 8 and 14 of the Human Rights Act 1998 for lone parent families

News items

• The Guardian reported on the Commission on Social Security led by Experts by Evidence inquiry on Universal Credit;
• The Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA), the trade body for civil enforcement agents, announced that it would no longer review complaints on behalf of its members in order to streamline civil enforcement complaints;
• Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published his final report on extreme poverty in the United Kingdom following welfare reforms;
• The Home Office published its independent review of the effectiveness of the enforcement of the Modern Slavery Act 2015;
• The CQC published its interim report on the use of restraint, prolonged seclusion, and segregation for people with a mental health problem, a learning disability, or autism;
• Audit Scotland published its programme of work for 2019-2024;
• The Trust for London commissioned the Commission on Social Security led by Experts by Experience to produce a White Paper on the replacement of Universal Credit;
• The BBC reported that NHS fines for 1.7 million people had been overturned since 2014;
• The charity INQUEST published its report, Family reflections on Grenfell: No voice left unheard, highlighting the personal experiences of family members of the Grenfell Tower fire victims on the response of government to this tragedy.

Upcoming items

• The AJC is to hold a workshop on 19^th June 2019 on mapping administrative justice in Scotland and Wales;
• Maurice Sunkin (University of Essex) will post a UKAJI blog piece reviewing Hertogh & Kirkham’s latest book A Research Handbook on the Ombudsman;
• Stergios Aidinlis (University of Oxford) will post a UKAJI blog piece on his research into extra-legal factors that may influence a public decision-maker’s discretion to grant or refuse a Freedom of Information Act 2000 request;
• Paulien de Winter (University of Groningen) will post a UKAJI blog piece on her research into the differential administration of welfare benefits among administrative actors in the Netherlands;
• Sarah Craig (University of Glasgow) will post a UKAJI blog piece on her research into the impact of mistranslation in immigration bail hearings;
• Charlotte O’Brien (University of York) will post a UKAJI blog piece on her research into the discriminatory consequences of the administration of the two-child rule for Child Benefit.