A tribunal member has been issued with both a formal warning and formal advice following two complaints.
Dr Malcolm Davies is a medical member of the social security and child support tribunal, a first-tier tribunal which mainly covers appeals against decisions taken by departments such as HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions.
According to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO), at a hearing on 15 February, Davies questioned an appellant in an inappropriate manner which resulted in the hearing being adjourned.
A JCIO spokesperson added: ‘This risked damaging the appellant’s confidence in the tribunal’s ability to deal with his appeal fairly and justly, resulting in the hearing being adjourned to enable it to be heard before a new panel.’
Davies took full responsibility and apologised immediately at the hearing.
Following an investigation by the JCIO, the body found Davies’ conduct at the hearing ‘fell below that expected of a judicial office holder’ and issued Davies with formal advice for inappropriate conduct during a hearing.
A second complaint was also made in regard to Davies’ social media use and he was issued with a formal warning for inappropriate postings.
A JCIO spokesperson said: ‘Dr Davies identified himself on Twitter as a judicial office holder and published numerous tweets containing inappropriate political comments which could cast doubt on his impartiality and damage public confidence in the judiciary generally.
‘Following an investigation in accordance with the Judicial Conduct (Tribunals) Rules 2014, a regional tribunal Judge found that Dr Davies’s tweets constituted misconduct.’
