The move comes after media enquiries have established a number of members of the tribunals have links to property businesses including letting, landlords services and other related interests which are not yet publicly declared by the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service (SCTS).
And, with the existence of a Register of Judicial Recusals since 2014 – which recently saw significant improvements after a media investigation exposed failures to record judges standing aside in cases – there are also calls for a fully pubic Register of Tribunal Recusals to be published with equivalent detail on cases and Tribunal members as is currently disclosed by the Judiciary of Scotland.
Moves to improve transparency in the Tribunals system - and bring it up to speed with the judiciary - have come about after a number of cases have been brought to the attention of the media – where Tribunal members have failed to declare significant interests or step aside from hearings – which some participants have described as “rigged”.
An enquiry to the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service last month – in the form of a Freedom of Information request – also revealed the SCTS is failing to keep any records of recusals of Tribunal members – despite the requirements in place for over three years that members of the judiciary have to notify and publish their recusals from court hearings.
In a response to the FOI request, the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service refused to provide any information on Tribunal members standing aside from cases. The SCTS – who manage the tribunals - indicated no such information was held.
The SCTS response ended with a note all Tribunal members are subject to the same guidance to judicial office holders in terms of the Statement of Principles of Judicial Ethics – which has already been found to be flouted on a regular basis by even senior Court of Session judges who have been the subject of cases now reported in the media where they deliberately concealed conflicts of interest.
The SCTS said in response to the request asking for information on Recusals of Tribunal members: “The only information held by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service that falls within the description of your request is contained within guidance issued to judicial office holders. That guidance is the Statement of Principles of Judicial Ethics.”
A Tribunals User Charter for the Tribunals managed by the SCTS makes no mention of Tribunal members recusals or any registers of Tribunal members interests.
The announcement of the latest intake of members into the Tribunals system – an intake which is managed by the Judicial Appointments Board, was made by the Judiciary of Scotland here:
New Legal and Ordinary Members of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, Housing & Property Chamber
Thirty new Legal Members and 19 Ordinary Members have been appointed by the Scottish Ministers to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland and assigned to the Housing and Property Chamber by the President of Scottish Tribunals, Lady Smith.
The announcement follows a recruitment round by the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland (JABS), which invited applications from any suitably qualified individuals who wished to be considered for appointment.
The new members were recruited to assist in managing the increased jurisdiction of the Housing and Property Chamber that will handle more private rented sector cases from December 2017, including the new letting agents’ regime; transfer of jurisdiction from the sheriff courts; and new private tenancies.
The new members are as follows:
Legal Members
Yvonne McKenna; Lesley-Anne Mulholland; Nairn Young; Shirley Evans; Alastair Houston; Steven Quither; Petra Hennig McFatridge; Colin Dunipace; Lesley Johnston; Anne Mathie; Kay Springham; Alan Strain; Aidan O’Neill; Jan Todd; Alison Kelly; Valerie Bremner; Eleanor Mannion; Virgil Crawford; Pamela Woodman; Lynsey MacDonald; Karen Kirk; Neil Kinnear; Fiona Watson; Nicola Irvine; Graham Dunlop; Andrew Upton; Joel Conn; Melanie Barbour; Lesley Ward; Andrew McLaughlin.
Ordinary Members
Eileen Shand; Elizabeth Williams; Janine Green; Jennifer Moore; Linda Reid; Angus Lamont; David Fotheringham; David MacIver; David Wilson; Gerard Darroch; Gordon Laurie; James Battye; Leslie Forrest; Tony Cain; Elizabeth Currie; Frances Wood; Jane Heppenstall; Melanie Booth; Sandra Brydon.
The appointments came into effect on 18 September 2017.
Under changes to Scotland’s tribunals system which came into effect in July 2014, the Lord President is the head of Scottish Tribunals. He has various statutory functions, including responsibility for the training, welfare and conduct of its members.
The Lord President has assigned Lady Smith to the role of President of Scottish Tribunals. She has various statutory functions, including responsibility for the efficient disposal of business in the Scottish tribunals, for the assignment of members to individual Chambers within the First-tier Tribunal, and for review of the members.
The First-Tier Tribunal for Scotland comprises a number of separate Chambers within which similar jurisdictions are grouped. The Housing and Property Chamber, which was established on 1 December 2016, performs the functions of the former Private Rented Housing Panel (PHRP) and the Homeowner Housing Panel (HOHP) in relation to tenancy and property related disputes. The Chamber will also start to handle more private rented sector cases from December 2017 including those arising in relation to the new letting agents’ regime; transfer of jurisdiction from the sheriff courts; and new private tenancies.
Appeals from the First-tier Tribunal go to the second tier of the new structure, the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.
Appeals from decisions of the Upper Tribunal go to the Inner House of the Court of Session.
Further information about the Scottish Tribunals visit the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service can be found here: About Scottish Tribunals
The Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 created a new, simplified statutory framework for tribunals in Scotland, bringing existing jurisdictions together and providing a structure for new ones. The Act created two new tribunals, the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland and the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.
The Lord President is the head of the Scottish Tribunals and has delegated various functions to the President of Scottish Tribunals, the Rt Hon Lady Smith.
The Upper Tribunal for Scotland: The Upper Tribunal hears appeals on decisions of the chambers of the First-tier Tribunal.
The First-tier Tribunal is organised into a series of chambers .
From 1 December 2016, the Housing and Property Chamber was established and took on the functions of the former Home Owner and Housing Panel and the Private Rented Housing Panel.
From 24 April 2017, the Tax Chamber was established and took on the functions of the former Tax Tribunals for Scotland.
Tribunals Administered by the SCTS:
The Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland
The Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland
The Council Tax Reduction Review Panel
The Lands Tribunal for Scotland
The Scottish Charity Appeals Panel
If you have any experience before any of these Tribunals, or information in relation to cases, Diary of Injustice journalists would like to hear about it. All information and sources will be treated in strict confidence, contact us at scottishlawreporters@gmail.com
Previous articles on the lack of transparency within Scotland’s judiciary, investigations by Diary of Injustice including reports from the media, and video footage of debates at the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee can be found here : A Register of Interests for Scotland's Judiciary.
Previous reports on moves to publish judicial recusals in Scotland and a media investigation which prompted further reforms of the Scottish Register of Judicial Recusals can be found here: Judicial Recusals in Scotland - Cases where judges have stood down over conflicts of interest
18 comments:
One name on that list - solicitor who covered up for her boss re misappropriation of funds and mortgage fraud.
and now she is on a Housing tribunal. Judicial appointments jobs are jobs for their own
The new members were recruited to assist in managing the increased jurisdiction of the Housing and Property Chamber that will handle more private rented sector cases from December 2017, including the new letting agents’ regime; transfer of jurisdiction from the sheriff courts; and new private tenancies.
The new members are as follows:
Legal Members
Yvonne McKenna; Lesley-Anne Mulholland; Nairn Young; Shirley Evans; Alastair Houston; Steven Quither; Petra Hennig McFatridge; Colin Dunipace; Lesley Johnston; Anne Mathie; Kay Springham; Alan Strain; Aidan O’Neill; Jan Todd; Alison Kelly; Valerie Bremner; Eleanor Mannion; Virgil Crawford; Pamela Woodman; Lynsey MacDonald; Karen Kirk; Neil Kinnear; Fiona Watson; Nicola Irvine; Graham Dunlop; Andrew Upton; Joel Conn; Melanie Barbour; Lesley Ward; Andrew McLaughlin.
And how the hell is this impartial for tribunals?
The legal sector is one of THE biggest property owners in Scotland!
About the biggest property laundering racket you could ever home to come by!
@ 29 September 2017 at 17:10
Interested to hear more info on this, contact the blog please.
@ 29 September 2017 at 18:57
Yes, most of which is carefully hidden through a network of companies, friends & relatives ...
Have to wonder why they have been able to get away with it for so long i.e. not declaring their assets/interests and recusals which I now understand thanks to your tireless work on this register.
No doubt a lot of senile old grannies & idiots lose their homes to the legal scum but then that's what you get for trusting lawyers and going around saying oh I have a lawyer and he/she is ever so friendly and will do everything blah blah then they take the lot I dunno maybe some deserve to be ripped off its not as if there are no warnings about scummy lawyers stealing everyones homes and money I bet lots of the names there will figure in complaints at some point or another and will be covered over like they always do
want to protect your home and cash after the govt take their share of it stay away from lawyers!
Look at some of the surnames of the ones who use their real names and you can see jobs for the family at work.Disgusting.
Stage managed appointments and I note at least one name included to give an air of credibility to the tribunal.
You do realise this group will be working on private lets - the majority of which are managed or factored by the legal profession itself.
Plenty grounds of conflict of interest.If they were to complete a register and include all the property interests of their relatives this tribunal such as it is would be exposed as another window dressing exercise for the legal profession.
Expect one or two carefully managed cases to slip through with a willing ahem 'journalist' on their payroll giving their spin a good showing in the name of the public good when all we are really talking about here is the good of vested interests and their connections.
In a system with any proper accounting procedure in place a register of interests would be fundamental and automatically apply - but is clearly not wanted in Scotland by all levels of its legal profession.
How many of the members. lay or legal, have connections to the building or rental industry? - answer, we are not telling you!
Is the lay member David Wilson for example linked to the well know building firm advertised at;
https://www.dwh.co.uk/new-homes/?qloc=Scotland&rad=0&rlr=False&bmin=0&bmax=7&ptype=Any|&goption=Any&pmin=0&pmax=3000000&plist=&sqmin=0&sqmax=3000&sf=geodist()&sd=ASC&sbuy=False&p=0&ps=10&po=0&f=false&v=map&ft=False&sn=&incl=&excl=&h2b=False&ipr=False&epr=False&cc=DWH&cgn=Home&cgs=Home
But why question such glaring failures of what is designed to be, and remain, an inherently dysfunctional system?
Surely, goes the routine, we can all sleep easy in our beds knowing that "....the Lord President is the head of Scottish Tribunals"?
There was a press release sent to the newsdesk earlier this week on this with the big name QCs mentioned and a note demanding we run the story as a positive for Scotland.
However I see you gave it the proper treatment.
Also of the opinion your register for judges be extended to cover all lawyers advocates paralegals and anyone else in the legal profession.
Basically the judges and lawyers just slipped all their friends and relatives onto a bunch of tribunals they run for their own ends and to line their pockets
How much are they leaching from the taxpayer for this mob?wont be peanuts for sure because lawyers and the so-called 'non lawyers' who hang around them are up to their necks in bungs and expenses claims
Were you aware the Faculty of Advocates are paying up to £500 cash for clients to read out a series of quotes about how great they are.
All you have to do is sign a non disclosure and agreement not to speak to journos unless called upon to do so by FoA and only in their presence.
All comms and questions handled by a certain PR agency in Alva St.
This is the Oh yah I sit on a tribunal crowd who use their connections to blag property on the cheap and do dodgy Christopher Hales style deals and never get caught because mummy Law Society of Scotland says it's okay to steal because we have your back.
@ 30 September 2017 at 13:57
Nothing connected with Scots Law is free or free of public cash subsidies ... the Law Society of Scotland's £ billion pound legal industry is mostly build on public cash.
@ 30 September 2017 at 13:01
Yes, a good idea. This was also raised in the media and it would solve Lord Carloway's problem of a register of judicial interests hindering recruitment of judges ...
If a register of interests already existed for the legal profession then they wouldn't have anything to worry about if they wanted to apply for a judicial position ... and people would get to see quite a bit more about their lawyer before entrusting their legal services to them.
@ 30 September 2017 at 15:04
Interesting, thanks for this ... have heard similar going on with regards to at least one big name Edinburgh law firm ... just another attempt at PR.
Any such cases you know of please send in via the blog contact details.
@ 30 September 2017 at 15:23
Could be ... and a few linked to instances worthy of further inspection.
Good comments Peter happy to see people are reading up about your register of interests as they say this should have been in long ago and as you say for all lawyers not only judges!
Bravo keep up the good work mate!
Iain said...
Stage managed appointments and I note at least one name included to give an air of credibility to the tribunal.
You do realise this group will be working on private lets - the majority of which are managed or factored by the legal profession itself.
Plenty grounds of conflict of interest.If they were to complete a register and include all the property interests of their relatives this tribunal such as it is would be exposed as another window dressing exercise for the legal profession.
Expect one or two carefully managed cases to slip through with a willing ahem 'journalist' on their payroll giving their spin a good showing in the name of the public good when all we are really talking about here is the good of vested interests and their connections.
30 September 2017 at 11:46
Yes and you only need to take a look this and then look at Scotland's housing stock and private rents to see how ridiculous this is appointing 30 lawyers and their friends to tribunals!
Anonymous said...
Were you aware the Faculty of Advocates are paying up to £500 cash for clients to read out a series of quotes about how great they are.
All you have to do is sign a non disclosure and agreement not to speak to journos unless called upon to do so by FoA and only in their presence.
All comms and questions handled by a certain PR agency in Alva St.
30 September 2017 at 15:04
This explains some items I read on FoA website
Also the FLSU Free Legal Services Unit is little more than a promotional exercise.Rejects most cases including the ones about dodgy lawyers and FoA friendly public bodies.Only takes those it can make use of for own ends.
www.advocates.org.uk/instructing-advocates/free-legal-services-unit
I was hoping you would get around to writing about the tribunals the Employment Tribunal has to be one of the most corrupt out there I have personal experience and when I objected to some of their remarks they threatened to throw me and my case out immediately while my lawyer looked on and said nothing.I realised he was in on the act later when I saw him having a laugh with one of the members while I waited to speak to him after the hearing.He told me he was going to do more work on my case for another hearing but the next day I received a letter saying he withdrew from acting for me and the letter was posted the day before the hearing took place.Absolute scum will email you of my experience hope you can look into this thanks
After spending months dealing with the OSCR Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator I wonder how corrupt the Charity Appeals Panel is because the OSCR is totally corrupt and something which could do with your attention.
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