The Adjudication Panel for England was an independent judicial tribunal set up under the

Local Government Act 2000 The Local Government Act 2000 (c.22) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales. Its principal purposes are: * to give powers to local authorities to promote economic, social and envir ...

. Its role was to rule on alleged breaches of English local authorities' 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 of n ...

which ruled on complaints referred to it by the Standards Board for England. 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 David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. The Panel was abolished in January 2010 and its functions transferred to the First-tier Tribunal. 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

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

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

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' 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 Steven John Norris (born 24 May 1945 in Liverpool) is a British Conservative Party politician and businessman. Norris served as Member of Parliament for Oxford East from 1983 to 1987. After narrowly losing that marginal seat in 1987 he re-ente ...

(Conservative) and

Simon Hughes Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a former British politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, an External Adviser to The Open University, and UK Strategic Adviser to Talgo. Hughes was Deputy Leader ...

(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 super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...

proposed by

Damian Hockney Nicholas Richard Alexander Damian Hockney is a British former politician who was the leader of the One London party from 2005 to 2008. He was a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide, and was also a member of the Metropolitan Police ...

(

One London One London was a small British political party formed on 15 September 2005 by Damian Hockney and Peter Hulme-Cross. They were elected to the London Assembly in June 2004 as United Kingdom Independence Party representatives, but in February 2 ...

) and seconded by

Darren Johnson Darren Paul Johnson (born 1966) is a former English politician and prominent member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He represented the Green Party on the London Assembly from 2000 to 2016 and was a Green councillor in the London Bor ...

(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 City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

councillor

Paul Dimoldenberg Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

had breached the Council's code of conduct by leaking documents relating to

Dame Shirley Porter Shirley, Lady Porter (''née'' Cohen; born 29 November 1930), styled between 1991 and 2003 as Dame Shirley Porter, is a British politician who led Westminster City Council in London, representing the Conservative Party. She is the daughter and ...

, but imposed no penalty as Cllr Dimoldenberg was acting as a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

and had not gained personally financially or politically.

Islington

In January 2006, the Panel cleared five councillors from the London Borough of Islington 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