It's great to be here today.
The Council on Tribunals Annual Conference can now lay claim to being the central event of the year in the administrative justice and tribunals world. The equivalent of the Judges Service and Breakfast on 1 October, or the State Opening of Parliament, but without the uniforms Especially at this exciting time for tribunals.
We stand on the threshold of what is arguably the biggest single change ever seen in the way in which justice is delivered in administration and in the workplace. The new Executive Agency will begin its transitional year next year, ahead of its formal launch in April 2006. It will bring tribunals together under one unified administration. And just two days ago, in the Queen's Speech, we announced our intention to publish a Courts and Tribunals Bill during this session of Parliament. This is a crucial moment in the development of our Tribunals Service and I want to talk to you today about why this work is so important and what the future looks like for tribunals.
Tribunals are a hugely important part of our justice system. There are probably more hearings in Tribunals than there are in Courts. They matter because people need confidence that they can obtain justice in their dealings with the state and in their workplace. They need the safeguards that tribunals can provide. But most especially they need institutions that enable them to resolve their disputes quickly, fairly and proportionately. And in a way that makes the problems manageable.
Our aim in reforming our tribunals is the same as that which underpins our constitutional reforms and our criminal justice reforms: to improve the relationship between the individual and the State. This is not reform for its own sake, but reform to ensure that our public institutions remain connected to the people they serve.
Without that connection our institutions will be unable to maintain public confidence. Without confidence they will be unable to engage with people's needs. And without engaging they will be unable to deliver what people want.
Tribunals are an important part of this. It is critical that citizens have access to a system of redress, and a means of vindicating their rights. The system must be clear and coherent for those who use it. It must give the citizen confidence that justice will be done - proportionately and swiftly. And there must be real access to justice. Those aims are at the heart of what the unified tribunals service is all about.
There are challenges ahead. These reforms must mean a better service - quicker, more accessible, less daunting - whether the individual's case is about unfair dismissal or discrimination at work, or about a decision by the State. But there are many opportunities too. The creation of a unified tribunals service will enable us to better serve the many individuals who turn to our Tribunals every year.
The development of tribunals has a long history - the oldest "tribunal", if I can call them that, - the Special Commissioners of Income Tax - are just about to celebrate their 200th anniversary.
But the process of developing Tribunals as we know them today started in earnest during the the First World War and led through to the 1940s, when new administrative tribunals were created, as part of the welfare state.
This development continued with the Franks Report, followed by the Tribunals and Inquiries Act, 1958, which established tribunals as an independent and expert part of the justice system, not an aspect of administration, carried out as part of the functions of a Whitehall department.
In the 1970s, we saw the creation of the rights not to be dismissed unfairly or to be discriminated against at work, enforceable through what are now Employment Tribunals.
Such developments - coupled with the creation of and growth in Ombudsmen over the past 40 years - have broadened the scope for redress and demonstrated new ways of dealing with cases.
Less than five years ago my predecessor Derry Irvine asked Andrew Leggatt to review the tribunal system and his rapidly produced and highly persuasive report, Tribunals for Users, stands alongside Harry Woolf's Review of Civil Justice and Robin Auld's Review of the Criminal Courts as one of the three pillars of reform of the justice system in recent years.
Last year Derry Irvine was able to announce that the government intends to set up a unified tribunal service for the main central government tribunals. And in July this year we published our White Paper "Transforming Public Services : Complaints, Redress and Tribunals."
Now the pace is accelerating. A new Executive Agency will be created - bringing the administration of central government tribunals together within DCA. But even before it has come into being we can see real improvements. Like the creation of a Virtual Management Team of the key tribunal chief executives and secretaries to plan for the future. Or the new clearing house scheme for tribunals - making real our White Paper commitment to a Shared Accommodation Initiative. This will mean faster and more convenient hearings for users and real savings.
As you know, the Agency's Chief Executive has already been appointed - Peter Handcock, my Principal Adviser on criminal justice. Peter comes to the job with unmatched experience in the administration of justice, and with real commitment and drive. We are lucky to have him.
The Lord Chief Justice, with the agreement of the Lord President of the Court of Session and the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, has appointed Robert Carnwath to act as Senior President-designate. I very much welcome his appointment too. I very much welcome the close ties with the judiciary, and believe that many benefits will accrue from that partnership.
Already Robert and Peter are working together to create this new and unified service.
And the Courts and Tribunals Bill will provide the legislative framework for the new system. It will unify the judiciary and create a coherent judicial structure while maintaining expertise. It will formalise the role of the Senior President and create jurisdictional Presidents. It will create a Tribunals Procedure Committee to prepare rules. It will turn the Council on Tribunals into an Administrative Justice Council.
We intend that in due course all appointments to the judiciary in the new tribunal system will be made by the Judicial Appointments Commission. Unlike current tribunal Presidents, the judicial head of the new system will be appointed by the Heads of the Judiciary, not by a Minister. And the unified tribunal system will be administered by an executive agency working in partnership with the judiciary and accountable to DCA Ministers, not to the Ministers of the various different Departments where tribunals have previously lodged. Together these measures should build public confidence in the independence of the tribunal system from government. We will lead the common law world in establishing beyond doubt the independence of tribunals from the executive.
In all this we have tried to look at the bigger picture. And here I want to pay particular tribute to the efforts and contribution of Geoffrey Filkin who really drove this agenda forward, as those of you who were here last year and heard his speech will know. He has moved on, but Cathy Ashton has taken up the baton with the same enthusiasm and determination.
Our determination to look at the system as a whole has meant that the new and unified Tribunal Service will have a different type of task and remit to the organisations which it brings together and, indeed, to the courts. Its task is not just to operate a set of processes, important and necessary though that may be. It is to make sure that Tribunals better serve people. Its task is to innovate. To develop proportionate dispute resolution. To find new and better ways of helping people when things go wrong. And, crucially, to press for change in systems and decision-making organisations to reduce the need for redress wherever possible.
So the key task for the new Tribunal Service is not just to run an efficient and effective executive operation, but also to take the initiative across Whitehall to ensure that more decisions are right first time and that disputes are resolved, so far as possible, without recourse to hearings before tribunals at all.
My Department, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, now has the task of co-ordinating redress policy across government. In addition to the creation of the new unified Tribunal Service we will be tackling this new role in two ways. First, we will soon be publishing a set of principles which we hope will guide thinking inside and outside government on what the different redress mechanisms available - courts, tribunals, ombudsmen and others - should do.
Secondly, as our White Paper in July announced, we will be starting a series of pilot projects to test out new approaches to improving redress. We have already brought together the major tribunal systems to agree a common approach to improving information about redress. We are commissioning research on what our users and potential users need and we are today publishing research on how some other countries handle common issues in administrative justice. We are working with the Advice Services Alliance and others to devise schemes which improve advice and support to users. Just last week we agreed a joint project with the Legal Services Commission to look at ways of making tribunal-specific advice more widely and freely available - both directly to users and through advisors.
I believe this fresh and more coherent approach will be widely welcomed - by those who work in the system, by those who use the system, and by those who advise and represent them. It will mean new challenges both for government and for those who work in the administrative and employment justice fields as judiciary and as advisors and representatives. It will mean change, too, for the Council on Tribunals. But I know that the Council has embraced its future as an Administrative Justice Council with enthusiasm. While legislation is needed to make the transformation complete I am greatly encouraged by the pro-active and imaginative approach the Council is already taking, at this conference and at the conferences it has organised and is organising for the future. We will support and encourage this process of transformation.
I believe we can take forward reform of administrative justice and tribunals in a real spirit of partnership. And I hope and believe that by the time of next year's conference we will be in the midst of real change in the way in which we all serve the public.