Judicial misconduct findings will soon contain more details to ‘improve public understanding of disciplinary decisions’, the lord chancellor and the lord chief justice announced today. However they reject proposals for public hearings. 

Dominic Raab and Lord Burnett recommended in November that disciplinary statements issued by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) – which generally contain very few details – should include more information about the circumstances in which any misconduct occurred.

They said in their joint response today that publishing more information ‘will improve transparency and aid public understanding of the disciplinary system’, which will in turn ‘help to maintain public confidence in the system’.

‘To be of real value, the statements should give a full picture of the circumstances in which misconduct occurred and an understanding of why a particular sanction was given for it,’ they said. ‘We consider that more detailed statements, combined with publication periods proportionate to the seriousness of the misconduct, will improve public understanding of disciplinary decisions.’

Their response also states that ‘those changes which do not require legislation, for example measures to improve transparency, will be introduced as soon as possible’. The Gazette understands they could be implemented in a matter of weeks.

However, Raab and Burnett said they are ‘not convinced that public hearings would benefit the system’, despite calls from some respondents that the public should be able to attend disciplinary proceedings.

The pair said last year that ‘public hearings could help to promote transparency’, but they considered that ‘the arguments against holding disciplinary panel hearings in public outweigh any potential benefits’.

A ‘small number of respondents commented that public hearings should be a feature of the disciplinary system’, they said in their response, but added: ‘Our position remains that … we are not convinced that public hearings would benefit the system.’

 

This article is now closed for comment.