PLP wrote to the Office for Statistics Regulation this week, urging them to examine the use of statistics in the ongoing process. It said there has been ‘multiple instances of flawed use of statistics in the process so far, perhaps most notably in relation to Cart judicial reviews’.
The government’s proposals include abolishing judicial review of Upper Tribunal appeals―the Supreme Court ruled in R (on the application of Cart) v Upper Tribunal [2011] UKSC 28 that these judicial reviews were lawful. It claims only 12 out of 5,500 such cases (0.22%) have been successful. However, PLP says this figure is ‘entirely incorrect and misleading’ as it mixed reported and unreported cases. It said the success rate was actually 12 out of 45 reported cases (26.7%).
Joe Tomlinson, PLP research director, said: ‘The standards of the statistics being produced are, in places, flawed and misleading.’
