Catalogue description Lord Chancellor's Department: Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries (Franks Committee)

The Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries was appointed on November 1st 1955, under the chairmanship of the Right Honourable Sir Oliver Franks, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., C.B.E., and its terms of reference were to consider and make recommendations on:- a) the constitution and working of tribunals other than the ordinary courts of law, and b) the working of such administrative procedures as include the holding of an enquiry or hearing by or on behalf of a minister or an appeal or as the result of objections or representations, and in particular the procedure for the compulsory purchase of land.

The main recommendation of the committee regarding tribunals was that, although their method of decision worked reasonably well, it could be improved by the establishment of two standing Councils on Tribunals, one for England and Wales and one for Scotland, which would keep the constitution and working of tribunals under continuous review.

The general conclusion regarding administrative procedure involving an enquiry or hearing was that because the resultant decisions were taken by Ministers and therefore to a considerable degree by departmental processes, it was essential, if public confidence was to be maintained, that the various procedures should be as open as possible. These recommendations were published on 15 July 1957 as the Report of the Committee on Administrative Tribunals and Enquiries (Cmnd. 218).

Some of the committee's recommendations were later given statutory force by the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1958 and resulted in the establishment of the Council on Tribunals.