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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

No, I cannot give that answer. The noble Lord correctly referred to the advisory council. We are talking about executive responsibility envisaged by the previous Government, vested in the Department for Constitutional Affairs and currently recognised by this Government as being vested in the Ministry of Justice. As I was saying, it will take the lead on the co-ordination redress of policy across government, facilitating development of more integrated and consistent dispute resolution systems. It will also take a systemic view across the various means of tackling disputes and the roles of the different organisations that provide them. By enhancing the policy function, the Ministry of Justice will be well placed to look across the entire administrative justice system. The noble Lord, Lord Newton, is absolutely correct: the Cabinet Office is responsible for ombudsmen policy, including the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Each department is responsible for ombudsmen within each policy area on which it leads. However, administrative justice includes both tribunals and redress by ombudsmen and therefore the Ministry of Justice will take a systemic view across government, including ombudsman functions, as part of its role leading on administrative justice policy. For example, the Ministry of Justice recognises that administrative justice is an end-to-end process and that getting it right at the start of this process—that is, good-quality original decisions by the public bodies concerned—is vital. Getting it right first time benefits everyone concerned. Of course, the departments and public bodies making the original decision have the primary responsibility to ensure high-quality decision-making. That said, the Tribunals Service has been actively working with the larger decision-making agencies whose appeals it deals with—for example, the Department for Work and Pensions and the UK Border Agency, and my noble friend Lord Newton referred to the very large number of cases that that can involve—to review end-to-end dispute resolution procedures and feedback arrangements. The Tribunals Service will continue to work with decision-makers to improve getting it right first time and will seek to spread lessons learnt among relevant decision-making bodies to drive up standards. Going back to the AJTC’s functions concerned with keeping administrative justice under review, it is clear that advising on the development of the administrative justice system, putting forward proposals for change and making proposals for research are the proper functions of the ministry. But I recognise that noble Lords take the view that an independent body will take a different approach to a government department on what ““keeping under review”” means, especially if that body has said, as the AJTC says in its strategic plan, that its work is driven by the needs of users. It behoves all public bodies involved in the administrative justice system to always keep the needs of the user at the heart of their system and service provision. However, the Ministry of Justice will continue to seek the views of users on the services it provides. The Tribunals Service already has a range of user groups at national and local levels, which bring together representatives of the public who use tribunal services, professional groups such as the Bar and the Law Society, and the judiciary and Administration to consider the operation of tribunal services. With regard to the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council’s functions which relate to the oversight and development of administrative justice, I believe that this is properly a core function of the Ministry of Justice and should not be duplicated elsewhere. The Government’s arm’s-length body review concluded that the Civil Justice Council performed a technical function and should be retained. I should remind the noble Lord that there is a substantive difference between the functions of the AJTC and the Civil Justice Council. Most significantly, the Civil Justice Council advises the Lord Chancellor on the development of the civil justice system and refers proposals to change to the Lord Chancellor and the civil procedure committee. Finally, the AJTC and the Council on Tribunals have made a valuable contribution. It is not the Government’s intention that the work done so far should be wasted. I understand that there are continuing discussions between the present AJTC chairman and Ministry of Justice officials to identify the priority work to take forward. There is a changed landscape in the world of tribunals, which is largely a heritage of the previous Government. In the light of these explanations, I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.