16 Sep Concerns raised about government’s “review of judicial review”

Deighton Pierce Glynn joined other claimant judicial review firms (Leigh Day, Bindmans LLP, Bhatt Murphy and Irwin Mitchell) in writing to the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland, about the imbalanced terms of reference and conduct of the Government’s recently announced review of Administrative Law. In our letter of 2 September 2020 we called for a consultation of those affected. A limited call for evidence has now been instituted. However, concerns remain as to the breadth of voices that the review will hear from and the limited experience of judicial review, particularly from a lay claimant or claimant lawyer point of view, amongst the panel’s composition. Our letter asked:

“We…call upon the Government to consider expanding the Panel, to include practising public lawyers with expertise in claimant public law litigation and legal aid funded judicial review work, both from private practice and the voluntary or charitable sectors, in order to ensure that the Panel can more comprehensively scrutinise the call for evidence.”

The terms of reference for the review challenge long-established principles of constitutional law, with the potential to have a real and lasting impact on access to justice for many.

The letter has been reported in the Law Society Gazette here.

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