Baroness Ashton looks at the Tribunals Service, the newly created organisation set up to deliver reform for this type of popular redress


Since the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) was formed in June 2003, some fundamental questions about tribunal reform have been asked.


Sir Andrew Leggatt's report, Tribunals for Users, recommended fundamental changes to the tribunal system to put the needs of users at its heart. The government announced in March 2003 that it would create a Tribunals Service to deliver these reforms.



The DCA is a new department with a clear mission to bring benefit to its users and the public. For tribunals I believe this means casting the focus of reform wider than reforming tribunal structures. Users do not volunteer for the experience of going to a tribunal.



Compared to most other forms of independent redress, tribunals handle a large volume of work. The ten largest tribunals cost in the region of £280 million each year and deal with approximately 500,000 appeals.



Tribunals also have their weaknesses - they can be formal, daunting, stressful and slow. Because of those weaknesses, many more than the half a million eligible appellants to the Tribunals Service do not avail themselves of their rights.



How much better it is for the user, and potential user, if the problem never arises in the first place; if decision-making departments get things right first time and learn from the mistakes they do make; if employers understand their obligations and abide by them. And where things go wrong how much better it is if they can be sorted out quickly and informally. That means in turn that the right route to redress for the individual is clear, efficient and easily accessible.



This is why the White Paper the government published in July - 'Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals' - is so broad in its scope. We have looked at what is done in other countries and at how ombudsmen and complaints handlers in both the public and private sectors work.



The new organisation we are creating to bring together the major tribunal systems will not just be a federation of existing organisations. It will be a new type of organisation with a new mission. The new body will be part of the DCA but working across government, supported by the DCA in the department's new role of taking the lead on co-ordinating redress policy, when citizens are dissatisfied with the government or an employer.



It will also work in partnership with the Council on Tribunals, which will be transformed into a new Administrative Justice Council, still with an independent chairman, and with a remit to keep under review not just tribunals but the whole administrative justice system.



Five years from now I would expect to see, as an established part of our public services and our system of justice, better decisions, clearer communications, fast, fair and easily triggered review of decisions by departments and other authorities, and an independent, accessible, flexible and authoritative dispute resolution system, tailored to the needs of individuals.



The government is committed to this vision and the leaders of the tribunal judiciary are enthusiastic. But it requires, in addition, the real commitment of the whole of the tribunals' judiciary and of users' advisers. We are moving rapidly to implement these reforms. The chief executive of the Tribunals Service, Peter Handcock, has already been appointed, and we will launch a range of pilots in alternative ways of resolving disputes next year.



We are trying to put the public first and transform administrative justice and dispute resolution.



Baroness Ashton is the new minister in the House of Lords for the Department for Constitutional Affairs and is responsible for tribunals