Lawyers argue the public is sick of sham consultations

The public is sick of sham consultations and public bodies must clean out their stables if they want to avoid legal challenges.

These were the conclusions of a conference held today by the Consultation Institute to offer local authorities and other public bodies advice on what they must get right if they want to avoid court action.

The conference heard from lawyers who had successfully brought cases against public bodies including London Councils, the NHS and the Secretary of State for Schools.

Tom Henderson, senior associate at Bircham Dyson Bell said that consultation should take place at an early stage, information should be adequate for the public to make intelligent comments, there should be enough time for meaningful consultation to take place and authorities must show that the information collected had genuinely influenced their decisions

Public bodies should look at past practice if local people have a legitimate expectation that they will be consulted, they should be consulted.

Louise Whitfield, solicitor at Piers Glynn said she saw too many cases where public bodies gave contradictory answers, refused to answer questions or provide documents to the public when requested.

Rosa Curling, solicitor at Leigh Day and Co who has brought a number of cases against the NHS, urged delegates to keep information as simple as possible. 

“Judges are very practical people and they will be suspicious of jargon,” she said.

It is important to get the process right as courts are more likely to rule in favour of applicants on these grounds, they are unlikely to want to interfere with political decisions.

Ms Curling said she hoped local authorities would not lose their right to challenge local NHS decisions and that Health Watch, the bodies charged with overseeing public involvement in healthcare, would be properly resourced and should not have to rely on the goodwill of volunteers.

Failure to carry out or undertake adequate Equalities Impact Assessments featured in several cases, six councils won their case against the Secretary of State for Schools when he tried to freeze funding for Building Schools for the Future because he failed to carry out an Equalities Impact Assessment.

The Consultation Institute is to hold a similar event is Manchester on June 8.

For more information contact the Consultation Institute on 01767 318 350, e-mail: info@consultationinstitute.org

This article wa\s published on the Local Government News website on Tuesday, April 19, 2011.
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