Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to commission a review of the effectiveness of the principle set out in the Guide to Judicial Conduct that tribunal judges should avoid extra-judicial activities that are likely to cause them to refrain from sitting due to perceived or actual conflict of interest; and what assessment they have made of whether tribunal judges do recuse themselves in cases where there is a reasonable perception that they would be biased.

The conduct of judges is a matter for the independent judiciary. It would therefore not be proper for the Government to require the publication of declarations of interest in relation to any court or type of judge. Doing so would risk undermining judicial independence.

All judges have taken an oath to act impartially. The Guide to Judicial Conduct sets out what this means in practice, stating that “judicial office holders should, so far as is reasonable, avoid extra-judicial activities that are likely to cause them to have to refrain from sitting because of a reasonable apprehension of bias or because of a conflict of interest that would arise from the activity”. The Guide then explains how parties to a case might approach applications to the court for the recusal of a judge because of a real or perceived conflict of interest.

Accordingly, the remit of the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office does not extend to complaints of bias in judicial decision-making. It can, however, investigate types of conduct such as the publication of “content which could damage public confidence in judicial impartiality”.

This means that although there is no register of judges’ interests, there are mechanisms in the court system and through the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office where issues about potential conflicts of interest can be raised.