Islanders could get a new way of fighting States mistakes

Wednesday 04 May 2016

A new Ombudsman to deal with complaints against States departments could be established after the existing appeals system broke down “in an atmosphere of mutual distrust” and ministers feeling “compelled to defend civil servants’ decisions”.

The Jersey Law Commission has proposed sweeping reforms of tribunals and appeals systems against decisions made by States departments – it says that a new central tribunal should replace the large number of appeal boards, some of which sit very rarely.

And the commission says that a Public Services Ombudsman should be set up to independently adjudicate on appeals against decisions by departments.

The report has been welcomed by External Relations Minister Philip Bailhache and Assistant Chief Minister Paul Routier, who are involved in an ongoing Access to Justice review and the Legislation Advisory Panel.

The findings of the review by the Jersey Law Commission – an independent body of experts set up to simplify and modernise the laws governing the Island – has found that:

-       Major reform of existing appeals and tribunals to take them away from ministers and the courts, and to hand them over to a new Jersey Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

-       Ministers should not hear appeals against decisions by public bodies.

-       The States Complaints Panels should be abolished, and an investigation into a new Public Services Ombudsman should be carried out.

-       Alternative Dispute Resolution should be used in disputes about civil servants and States departments.

The commission found that some existing tribunals and appeal mechanisms are rarely used, and are not set up to focus on the perspective of the people making appeals.

In particular they found that the States Complaints Boards to which people can go to appeal against decisions made by departments were not delivering results. Of the last five board findings where ministers were asked to reconsider decisions, four resulted in the ministers refusing to do so.

The board reported in 2013 that ministers were taking an inflexible stance on the boards’ reports and that ministers and departments “seem reluctant to acknowledge that mistakes are occasionally made”.

The Law Commission added that in the four cases where ministers had rejected board findings, the arguments of the ministers were “persuasive”.

But they wrote: “Our finding is that an atmosphere of mutual distrust has arisen between the Panel and government. An unsustainable situation has come about in which the work of the Panel is routinely dismissed by Ministers, leaving complainants with no remedy notwithstanding the considerable time and effort expended in preparing for a public hearing of their case.”

The Jersey Law Commission’s report is now out for consultation until the end of July – you can get involved here.