Dispute Resolution: 'could do better' despite £14m saving

The government's use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) saved the public purse £14.6 million during 2003/4 - an increase of more than £8 million on the previous 12 months - but critics have claimed Whitehall could do better.


The report by the Department for Constitutional Affairs also showed that ADR use increased slightly from the previous year, while the settlement rate marginally decreased.


Government departments used ADR in 229 cases during 2003/4, with settlement reached in 181 cases - a success rate of 79%. In the previous year it was used in 163 cases, of which 83% settled, saving an estimated £6.4 million.


This was the third report into the government's use of ADR in line with a pledge made in 2001 by the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, to promote it as much as possible.


The report also published the amount of ADR training given to government lawyers over the year, revealing that only the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health had an ongoing programme. Customs and Excise undertook none, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs did it informally and the Treasury Solicitor's Department only provided sessions for new joiners.


Anthony Maton, a dispute resolution partner at McGrigors and secretary of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, said: 'I accept it is harder for the government to get involved in much ADR, but my suspicion is that [Whitehall] is not making enough of the opportunity it has to mediate, and the practical experience of the process is limited.'