MoJ proposes shorter time limits for applications in judicial review shake-up
Restrictions on oral renewals and significant changes to the time limits in which applications in planning and procurement cases must be made are among a range of proposals in the Government’s much anticipated consultation on reforms to judicial review.
The consultation paper comes after the Prime Minister David Cameron, in a speech last month to the CBI, attacked the “massive growth industry of judicial review”.
In planning cases, the time after the initial decision that an application for judicial review could be lodged would be reduced from three months to six weeks. This would match the time limit for planning appeals, the MoJ said.
In procurement cases, the time after the initial decision that an application for judicial review could be lodged would be reduced from three months to 30 days, “to match the time limit for procurement appeals”.
Other proposals in the consultation paper include:
- Clarification in cases based on a continuing issue or multiple decisions, of the point when the time limit starts, “to avoid long delays”.
- The scrapping of oral renewals for any case which has already had a hearing before a judge on substantially the same matter, “for example, at a court, tribunal or statutory inquiry”.
- The scrapping of oral renewals for any case where the application for permission has been ruled to be ‘totally without merit’ by a judge on the papers.
The consultation also proposes the introduction of a new fee for an oral renewal of £215. The MoJ said this could potentially rise to £235 under separate proposals.
“This complements separate proposals for increasing High Court and Court of Appeal fees, under which fees for judicial review applications would rise from £60 to £235, and fees to proceed to a hearing would increase from £215 to £235,” the Ministry said.
The MoJ claimed the changes would not alter “the important role that judicial review plays in holding Government and others to account but will instead deal with the unnecessary delays in the system and the weak or meritless cases which are submitted even when they have no chance of success”.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: “We have seen a huge surge in judicial review cases in recent years. The system is becoming mired in large numbers of applications, many of which are weak or ill-founded, and they are taking up large amounts of judicial time, costing the court system money and can be hugely frustrating for the bodies involved in them.”
Grayling said he was concerned that judicial review was being used increasingly by organisations “for PR purposes”.
He added: “We want go back to a system where judicial review is available for genuine claims, which provides people with access to judicial review where they need it but weeds out the cases that should frankly never be there in the first place.”
A ‘public engagement exercise’ on the proposals, which can be viewed here, will run until 24 January.
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