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WQ.460/2023
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. MARY
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 13th NOVEMBER 2023
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 20th NOVEMBER 2023
Question
“Will the Minister provide the annual budget, and the actual expenditure broken down into staff and ancillary costs, for the Mental Health Review Tribunal; and where Tribunal members are voluntary, will she also provide an estimate of unpaid time worked by them?”
Answer
The Judicial Greffe (JG) has provided the following information.
The budget for the Tribunal Service covers the employment of a full-time manager and two staff along with the cost of their offices and hearing rooms including the necessary IT infrastructure. The Tribunal Service covers, and its budget is applied to the following different services:
- The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal
- The Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT)
- The Social Security Tribunal
- The Planning Tribunal
- The Charity Tribunal
- The Health & Safety Tribunal
- The JG also hold and maintain The Register of Trade Unions and Employers Associations which includes registering applications to the register.
The JG do not hold a separate annual budget for the MHRT.
To the extent that the MHRT uses the staff and facilities provided for the Tribunal Service as a whole, the JG do not separate out the staff and ancillary costs associated with that particular Tribunal. There are costs specific to the MHRT which are summarised for 2022 below:
JUDICIAL GREFFE
MENTAL HEALTH TRIBUNAL SPECIFIC COSTS INCLUDED IN THE JUDICIAL GREFFE LEDGERS FOR 2022
£
Panel Member Fees 33,239.00
Legal Fees 72,360.00
Specific costs covered in respect of the Medical Panel Member:
General Medical Council Registration Fee (Medical Panel Member) 408.00 Professional Indemnity Insurance (Medical Panel Member) 482.00 Appraisal Fee (Medical Panel Member) 703.00 1,593.00
107,192.00
The rates on which these specific costs are calculated are as follows:
- Chair/ Deputy Chair is paid £296.00 per session up to 4 hours; above 4 hours double payment.
- Medical Member is paid £497.76 per session up to 4 hours; above 4 hours double payment. This was in line with the UK but has not been updated in line with recent increases there.
- Medical Member is paid to write/give oral report at start of hearing £186.66.
- Lay Member is paid £95.50 per session up to 4 hours; above 4 hours double payment.
- No payment is made for additional administration carried out by Chair/ Deputy Chair.
It should be noted that the Panel are generally only paid if a hearing takes place, and there are many mental health cases where the orders are discharged prior to the hearing.
The Judicial Greffier, who was until recently the Chair of the MHRT, states that the following time commitments are typical:
• Preparation 1 hour (this applies to all Panel members).
• Hearing 1 to 4 hours.
• Writing Judgment 1-3 hours (Chair/ Deputy Chair).
• Administration time provided by the Chair/ Deputy Chair but depending on the case can take approximately 1 hour per case.
• Members review and approve each judgment.
In addition to the Tribunal Service costs each Tribunal which hears appeals against the decision of a particular Department will cause costs to be incurred within that Department. For the MHRT the HCS Department has to provide factual information, reports, and evidence to the Tribunal, provide a venue for hearings which must be held in an approved establishment, and ensure, when required, that the patient is able to attend the hearing safely.
There are no voluntary members of the MHRT as such, although it should be noted that the rates paid to the Chair/ Deputy Chair and the Lay member are relatively low.