Current Issues in Administrative Justice: Examining Administrative Review, Better Initial Decisions, and Tribunal Reform

This report (co-authored with Professor Robert Thomas) emerged out of a research project — entitled “Administrative Justice: engaging with government to improve administrative decision-making” — funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account. That project, and our report, was designed to explore three key issues: (1) how can government departments and public authorities raise the quality of their decision-making?; (2) how do internal administrative review systems operate?; and (3) what is the future of tribunals? The report offers some reflections on the operation of administrative justice. It draws on the shared learning and experiences of those involved with seminar discussions to identify elements of the system that have worked well and potential areas for improvement. Based on the discussions, we offer three core recommendations concerning each of our three question. These findings seek to contribute to the public debate and offer critical reflections on how to develop and improve the work of administrative justice in the future.