The Adjudication Panel for England was an independent

judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a singl ...

set up under the Local Government Act 2000. Its role was to rule on alleged breaches of

English local authorities Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: civil parishes, local authorities, and regional authorities. Every part of England is governed by at least one local authority, but parish councils and regional authorities do not ex ...

' codes of conduct by elected members of those authorities.

History and function

The Panel was a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

which ruled on complaints referred to it by the

Standards Board for England The Standards Board for England was a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Established under the Local Government Act 2000, it was responsible for promoting high ethical standards in local ...

. It was able to impose a range of penalties, ranging from a reprimand to disqualification from holding elected office for up to five years. The Chair of the Panel was David Laverick. The Panel was abolished in January 2010 and its functions transferred to the

First-tier Tribunal The First-tier Tribunal is a first-instance general tribunal in the United Kingdom. It was created in 2008 as part of a programme, enacted in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, to rationalise the tribunal system, and has since t ...

. At the time of the transfer, the President of the Adjudication Panel for England was appointed as a Principal Judge of the First-tier Tribunal, its legal members became tribunal Judges and its lay members became tribunal members.

Controversial cases

Ken Livingstone

The Adjudication Panel came to prominence in February 2006 when it suspended

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English former politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of Londo ...

from office for four weeks following comments he made to ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' journalist Oliver Finegold, which Finegold taped. The suspension attracted criticism from the media, and from across the political spectrum including former mayoral candidates Steve Norris (Conservative) and Simon Hughes (Lib Dem) and was subject to a critical motion in the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

proposed by Damian Hockney ( One London) and seconded by Darren Johnson (Green). The suspension was due to start on 1 March 2006, but the High Court stayed the suspension on 28 February, pending an appeal by Livingstone. The appeal hearing started on 4 October and on October 19 the judge, Mr Justice Collins, overturned the Panel's decision and said that it had misdirected itself. The suspension was quashed and full costs were awarded to Ken Livingstone.

Paul Dimoldenberg

In May 2005, the Panel found

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

councillor Paul Dimoldenberg had breached the Council's code of conduct by leaking documents relating to Dame Shirley Porter, but imposed no penalty as Cllr Dimoldenberg was acting as a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

and had not gained personally financially or politically.

Islington

In January 2006, the Panel cleared five councillors from the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough, borough in North London, England. Forming part of Inner London, Islington has an estimated population of 215,667. It was formed in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, by the amalg ...

from allegations of conspiracy concerning the appointment of the Council's Chief Executive. The case, which concerned incidents from 2002, ran for over three years and was the longest-running case in the Panel's history.Lib Dems in the clear after ‘cronygate’ probe
. ''Camden New Journal''. Retrieved 25 September 2013

References

{{reflist

External links

Official websiteBBC Online: What is the adjudication panel?
Local government in England Ombudsmen in England Former courts and tribunals in the United Kingdom 2000 establishments in England 2010 disestablishments in England Courts and tribunals established in 2000 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 2010