Administrative Redress: Public Bodies and the Citizen

A project to review the law in relation to redress from public bodies for substandard administrative action.

Consultation paper

On 3 July 2008, we published our Consultation Paper on Administrative Redress: Public Bodies and the Citizen. A short summary is available that can be used as a guide to the main paper. A press release and press summary are also available

Our key objective in the project is to achieve the correct balance between fairness to aggrieved citizens and appropriate protections to public bodies and the public funds they use.

The consultation paper asks a series of open questions about different aspects of our suggested reforms and we will be seeking as wide a range of views as possible on all of these questions.

As part of the project we conducted research into the possible operation of the public law scheme outlined in the consultation paper. This drew on applications for judicial review listed before the Administrative Court in 2007. A table of our results is available.

The closing date for responses is 7 November 2008.

Background

In October 2004 we published a discussion paper as an initial consideration of the issues. This was followed by a seminar in November 2004, attended by judges, academics, practising lawyers, ombudsmen and Government officials.

Following approval of the project by the Lord Chancellor, in October 2006 we published a scoping paper to define the substantive law reform project.

For more information, contact the public law team or go to the team page.

NOTE - We are happy to provide information about our projects. However, we cannot give legal advice or deal with individual cases. Nor do we help with student assignments.