Press release

Re-appointment of members to Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council

The Lord Chancellor has re-appointed two members of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Bronwyn McKenna and Brian Thompson have been re-appointed from 1 April 2011. 

The AJTC is an independent advisory non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Its function is to keep under review the administrative justice system as a whole, with a view to making it accessible, fair and efficient.  It is one of the bodies proposed for abolition in the Public Bodies Bill, currently before Parliament. 

Appointments are normally made for a period of four years, but if the AJTC is wound up within that period, the appointments will come to an end.

Notes to editors

  1. The AJTC is an independent advisory non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. It was created by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and is the successor body to the Council on Tribunals (CoT).  The Chair of the AJTC is Richard Thomas, CBE. More about the AJTC
  2. Under Schedule 7 to the 2007 Act the AJTC must consist of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and no fewer than ten, but no more than fifteen appointed members. Of these, two or three are appointed by the Scottish Ministers with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Welsh Ministers; one or two are appointed by the Welsh Ministers with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Scottish Ministers; and the remainder are appointed by the Lord Chancellor with the concurrence of the Scottish Ministers and the Welsh Ministers.
  3. The retainer for members’ posts is £12,816 per annum, based on 44 days work per year.
  4. The appointments were made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process.  In accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if any declared) to be made public. Neither of the appointees has declared any political activity. 
  5. Bronwyn McKenna is a solicitor admitted in England and Wales and Northern Ireland and specialising in employment and discrimination law. She is Assistant General Secretary at UNISON. She is a former member of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council and a member of the Central Arbitration Committee since 2002. She sits on the Employment Law Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales and chairs the Legislative and Policy Committee of the Employment Lawyers Association.
  6. Ms McKenna holds one other Ministerial appointment. She is a member of the Tribunal Procedure Committee 2010 to 2013 (Unremunerated)
  7. Brian Thompson is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool with teaching and research covering the whole field of administrative justice. He is a member of the Panel of Specialist Advisers to the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, and Adviser on Public Law to the Northern Ireland Ombudsman. He holds no other ministerial appointments.
Published 16 May 2011