Who Judges The Judges?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From runways at Heathrow to leaving the EU, the Government dislikes its decisions being challenged in court. Now it’s putting Judicial Review itself under the spotlight. A new IfG report asks if that’s a wise course of action. Plus, are COVID passports really our Get Out Of Corona Jail card? Will they even work? And will they be using them in Parliament? This week’s special guest is Sir Jonathan Jones, head of the government legal service from 2014 to 2020. “Good policymaking and lawful policymaking ought to be two sides of the same coin.” – Jonathan Jones “Brexit has heightened the temperature around judicial review against the Government.” - Cath Haddon “Boris Johnson himself is a big fan of COVID passports… and that means a lot.” – Raphael Hogarth “If policy on vaccine passports is flaky then that’s going to risk a serious challenge.” – Jonathan Jones Presented by Hannah White with Cath Haddon, Raphael Hogarth and Tom Sasse. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.0	I'm Hannah White, the Iofs Deputy Director and back again as Inside Briefing's deputy presenter.
0:21.2	From contentious runways at Heath Road, contested ways to leave the EU, the government is
0:26.4	no stranger to its decisions being challenged in court. Indeed, central government faces
0:31.0	over 2,000 claims for judicial review every year. But is the government right to complain about
0:37.1	and seek to reform the way the law works
0:39.3	with or against policymaking? A new IFG report out this week explores this tricky territory,
0:45.2	and today we'll take a look to. We'll then move on to a subject which, prediction, could face
0:51.4	some legal issues of its own, COVID passports. The government is consulting
0:55.8	on how and where they could be used. Boris Johnson says he's in favour, but has the Prime Minister
1:00.8	given enough thought to the risks and difficulties that the scheme involves? Another new
1:05.1	IFG paper, we're spoiling you this week, sets out the eight questions that the government needs to
1:09.7	answer. We'll talk to one of the reports authors later. To kick off this week's sets out the eight questions that the government needs to answer. We'll talk to one
1:11.1	of the report's authors later. To kick off this week's episode, I'm joined in the virtual studio today
1:16.6	by the IFG duo behind our new report on the government's relationship with the law. Senior fellow
1:21.7	Catherine Haddon, hi, Kaff. Hi, Kaff. Hi. Raphael Hougarth, IFG Associate. Hi, Raphael. Hello.
1:29.6	And I'm delighted to be joined in the studio by a guest who knows more about this subject than, well, pretty much anyone. So Jonathan Jones,
1:34.7	head of the government legal service from 2014 to 2020. Hello, Jonathan. Hello, thank you for
1:40.3	having me. How are you finding life after government?
1:46.6	Well, I'm having fun, actually.
1:49.5	I joined Linklators as a senior consultant,
1:52.2	and I'm enjoying conversations like this about lots of things that are going on in the world of law
	...

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