Company Number: 3216897 Charity Number: 1058580 Scottish Charity Number: SC43518
JUSTICE
Report and financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2021
JUSTICE
Contents
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Reference and administrative information ..................................................................................... 1 Trustees’ annual report ................................................................................................................. 3 An introduction from our Chair of the JUSTICE Board, Peter Binning ............................................... 3 Objectives and activities ................................................................................................................ 5 Achievements and performance .................................................................................................... 9 Plans for the future from JUSTICE Director, Andrea Coomber ....................................................... 28 Structure, governance and management ...................................................................................... 30 Independent auditor’s report ....................................................................................................... 36 Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account) ................... 41 Balance sheet .............................................................................................................................. 42 Statement of cash flows .............................................................................................................. 43 Notes to the financial statements ................................................................................................ 44
JUSTICE
Reference and administrative information
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Company Number 3216897 registered in the United Kingdom Charity Number 1058580 registered in England and Wales Scottish Charity SC43518 registered in Scotland Number Registered office 59 Carter Lane and operational London address EC4V 5AQ Board members Board members, who are also directors under company law and the charity trustees as defined by section 177 of the Charities Act 2011, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows: Peter Binning Chair from 10 November 2020 Walter Merricks CBE Chair to 10 November 2020 Rachel Sexton Liz Campbell Alexandra Carr Patrick Corr Dr. Naomi Creutzfeldt Deba Das N. Lynn Hiestand Theodore Huckle QC Christina Liciaga Jennifer MacLeod Kate Saunders Dame Alison Saunders CB Sir Michael Tugendhat Key management Andrea Coomber Director personnel Jodie Blackstock Legal Director Samantha Burridge Director of Operations Amanda Miller Director of Development
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Reference and administrative information
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Bankers Lloyds Bank plc 222 Strand London WC2R 1BB CAFCash Ltd PO Box 289 West Malling Kent, ME19 4TA Investment managers BlackRock 33 King William St London EC4R 9AS CCLA Investment Management Ltd 80 Cheapside London EC2V 6DZ Auditor Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditor Invicta House 108-114 Golden Lane London EC1Y 0TL
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Trustees’ annual report
For the year ended 31 March 2021
An introduction from our Chair of the JUSTICE Board, Peter Binning
Welcome to JUSTICE’s Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial statements, and my first as Chair of the Board. I hope this provides you with an overview of our achievements and the challenges we have faced across the past year. What a year it has been. I would like to thank Walter Merricks CBE, the previous Chair of the Board, for his leadership over the past four years. I am honoured to follow in his footsteps and hope to continue his good work.
JUSTICE already had ambitious plans for the year when the COVID-19 public health crisis brought unexpected new challenges, increasing our workload and fundamentally changing the way in which the organisation worked. That the organisation managed to deliver on the plans, while responding to developments for the courts and tribunals, with a reduced headcount, is a reflection on the quality of our staff.
When the pandemic hit, JUSTICE was quick off the mark to explore ways of protecting jury trial, arranging mock trials to test whether fully remote jury trials could be fair. You will read later in this report how JUSTICE has contributed to remote jury trials in Scotland, and legislation being laid before the UK Parliament to enable remote jury trials in England and Wales. I was proud that my firm Corker Binning was able to contribute to this work alongside members of the Bar and others who devoted considerable time and effort to the project.
In the last year we have produced two working party reports; Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System; and When Things Go Wrong: the response of the justice system. These working parties have engaged our membership and the wider legal community to identify issues and solutions and have led to recommendations which we are working to implement. There has also been an unprecedented amount of briefing and consultation work with Parliament; some involving particularly concerning proposals for constitutional reform.
We moved seamlessly to hosting virtual events and held a huge number of these this year, including our Annual Human Rights and Student Conferences, our JUSTICE Scotland Human Rights Day Lecture, a series of career conversation events with our members, as well as events for our donors.
Like many charities, funding is always a focus and COVID-19 impacted on JUSTICE’s current and planned funding sources. Whilst we were able to weather the storm, we did lose some funders along the way, so were grateful to have the financial reserves to see us through this period of uncertainty, and for the JUSTICE60 giving group, which provides reliable multi-year unrestricted income.
The JUSTICE team has also spent the year developing our 2021-24 strategy, which was launched in April 2021, in line with our financial year. This has provided a great opportunity for us to reflect on our successes and challenges over the past four years. In that time, JUSTICE has produced
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Trustees’ annual report
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fifteen working party reports on different aspects of reform of the justice system, has seen membership numbers grow, with increased membership engagement and an income increase which has enabled us to maintain satisfactory reserves and provided us with greater security for the past year and our future. We are excited about new strategy, which our Director, Andrea Coomber describes in more detail on page 28 of this report
I hope that you enjoy reading this report. There is lots to look forward to in the year ahead and I look forward to sharing the journey with you during my first year as Chair.
I am so grateful to all who work on behalf of JUSTICE and to you, our supporters. Thank you.
There is a great deal for us to do in the next few years and so much that JUSTICE can achieve with your help.
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Trustees’ annual report
For the year ended 31 March 2021
The JUSTICE Board present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021.
Reference and administrative information, set out on pages 1 and 2, forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum, articles of association, and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.
Objectives and activities
Purposes and aims
JUSTICE is an all-party law reform and human rights organisation working to strengthen the justice system – administrative, civil and criminal – in the United Kingdom.
As reflected in our governing documents:
JUSTICE was established to promote the sound development and administration of the law for the benefit of the public in the following ways:
(a) By promoting education and conducting research into the law, including current and proposed practice and administration and reform of the law, as the JUSTICE Board thinks fit, and by publishing the useful results of such research;
(b) By providing specialist legal advice in relation to the law and legal procedures particularly in cases where it is apprehended that a miscarriage of justice has taken place;
(c) By providing legal representation for those who are unable to obtain legal representation from their own resources, particularly in cases where it is apprehended that a miscarriage of justice has taken place;
(d) and for such other purposes for the benefit of the community as shall be exclusively charitable.
Our primary object is ‘to promote the sound development and administration of the law for the benefit of the public’ in ways that include ‘promoting education and conducting research into the law, including current proposed practice and administration and reform of the law’. In recent years, JUSTICE has moved away from providing legal advice and representation. In part, this has been the assumption of JUSTICE’s previous work on miscarriages of justice by the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). We continue to be involved in how miscarriages of justice are handled, both in the courts and by the CCRC.
JUSTICE’s Strategic Plan for 2017-2020, which we have extended into the first quarter of 2021, whilst finalising our new strategic plan continued to see us focus on the justice system – civil,
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criminal and administrative – and the rights of people within it. This strategy also enables JUSTICE to work more closely with our members, including through working parties drawn from the membership.
The Strategic Plan identifies six key aims to guide and inform our work over this period:
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1 To produce creative, thoughtful and practical proposals for justice system reform, likely to make a sustained impact on the design of the system and/or practice within it.
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2 To act as a bridge between law and lawmakers, by engaging strategically with Westminster and Whitehall.
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3 To intervene in appropriate cases before superior courts domestically and regionally.
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4 To share our research and ideas for justice system reform with our membership and other interested parties.
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5 To grow and support our membership – individual, corporate and student – and to increase the financial sustainability of JUSTICE through an effective fundraising function.
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6 To be an effective and sustainable organisation in relation to our staff development, operational management and governance.
The Strategy commits JUSTICE to a focus on organisational sustainability, including increasing its engagement with the JUSTICE membership. The Strategy emphasises the importance of income generation for JUSTICE, to lend stability to the organisation, and to allow its staff complement to grow to meet the challenges of its mission.
Public benefit
Since its formation in 1957, JUSTICE has been at the cutting edge of the debate on legal reform and is widely respected for the breadth, depth and quality of its analysis. Today, more than ever, JUSTICE is involved in the issues that will shape the future legal landscape.
Direct beneficiaries of our work include practising lawyers, judges, law students and policymakers interested in the development and protection of the rule of law and human rights, in addition to the public at large, who benefit from a robust justice system that protects their rights.
The benefits of our work are demonstrated through: the adoption of our recommendations in government law reform initiatives; the referencing of our contributions to government consultations; the adoption of our suggested amendments to legislation; and the acceptance of our arguments in third-party interventions in court judgments. Our third-party interventions in the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court and in the European Court of Human Rights are submitted ‘in the interests of justice’ and not on behalf of particular parties. When adopted, our arguments strengthen legal protection for all people beyond those directly involved in the proceedings.
The Board has referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In particular, the Board considers how planned activities will contribute to the aims and
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objectives that have been set. While some activities are available only to members, these are in the minority and the vast majority of our work is available to the public free of charge. The JUSTICE website provides accessible information on our work to the public at large.
The Trustees confirm that they have paid due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission in deciding the aims, objectives and activities of the charity.
The Board considers that JUSTICE’s activities are of public benefit in at least the following ways:
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provision of independent research and analysis to external bodies, including the senior judiciary, government and politicians across the political spectrum to assist in formulating law, policy and practice related to justice matters, which can have significant benefit for people in the UK;
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dissemination of research and information about justice system reform directly to JUSTICE members, including: judges, barristers, solicitors, chartered legal executives, students, advisers to governments and corporations and non-governmental organisations, who are then better able to advise public and private bodies accurately about justice issues; and,
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offering conferences, lectures and other events on contemporary justice issues that are open to the general public to attend, to inform them about important issues which may affect their daily lives.
Principal Activities
Research and Education
The cornerstone of JUSTICE’s work is high quality, evidence-based research. This draws heavily on international and comparative experience – looking across jurisdictions, across types of law, and across the experience of different segments of the legal profession.
We use this research and analysis to generate, develop, and evaluate ideas about the justice system, which we deploy in a number of ways:
First, research is used to promote a better understanding of the fair administration of justice and human rights among political decision-makers and civil servants. JUSTICE regularly briefs ministers and shadow ministers, and their staff, as well as MPs and Lords on issues of the day. This work is undertaken on an all-party basis.
Second, our work is used to strengthen judicial analysis of particularly difficult legal issues through third-party interventions in superior domestic and regional courts. JUSTICE is a leading intervener in the UK Supreme Court. JUSTICE interventions are characterised by their thorough, balanced and comparative approach, and have been widely praised for their usefulness by senior judges.
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Finally, JUSTICE shares its research with its members and other interested parties, discussing and framing key policy debates of the day.
In 2014, JUSTICE returned to working closely with its members through working parties of the membership. Since then, JUSTICE has seen fifteen working parties report on different aspects of reform of the justice system. The personal and professional insights of the members have complemented the more traditional legal research provided by the staff, generating creative and challenging proposals for law reform.
JUSTICE continues to host a number of conferences annually, in addition to a schedule of smaller meetings, to bring together leading practitioners to discuss developments in the justice system and to enrich both JUSTICE’s understanding and that of our stakeholders. During the public health emergency, these events have moved seamlessly online.
Membership
JUSTICE is a membership organisation, and our members are among our greatest assets. Our members span law students, through the ranks of the profession, to retired lawyers and judges. They include practitioners of all different types of law and all branches of the profession. While our members cover the spectrum of politics, they share a common concern in maintaining the integrity of the justice system in the United Kingdom.
One of the aims of our strategic plan is to grow and support our membership through greater engagement and communication with the membership, and through increasing the profile of JUSTICE. To enable us to do this we have a Membership and Communications Coordinator and Development Administrator focused on recruitment of new members, membership retention and supporting our current members.
A key aspect of greater engagement with our members is, as noted above, the establishment of working parties of the membership to guide and execute law reform projects. Throughout our history, we have used such working parties – which have been responsible for some of our most influential and significant reports – to draw, as fully as possible, upon our members’ vast range of expertise and experience. Working parties also provide an opportunity for our corporate members to work closely with us in legal research, as well as with the publication and launch of key reports.
We depend very heavily upon, and greatly appreciate, the wide range of support we obtain from the legal community as a whole. However, when considering with whom we will work – for example, who will represent us in third party interventions, or participate in (or sponsor and host) our conferences and seminars, or help to author our publications – we prefer to work with individuals, firms and chambers who have demonstrated their support for JUSTICE and its objectives by becoming members. We therefore offer these opportunities to work with us, all other things being equal, to our members.
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Fundraising
Fundraising continues to be a priority for JUSTICE. After the success of our Securing JUSTICE at 60 Appeal we turned our attention to maintaining the fundraising momentum by consolidating and deepening relationships with current donors and reaching out to new supporters. Our Director of Development, Amanda Miller has been working with JUSTICE’s Development Board to identify potential funding for core costs and to grow the membership of our JUSTICE60 giving group through their philanthropic contacts, ensuring that JUSTICE continues to raise the income needed to grow for years to come.
Achievements and performance
The charity's main activities and beneficiaries for 2020-21 are described below. All its charitable activities focus on strengthening the justice system and are undertaken to further JUSTICE’S charitable purposes for the public benefit.
Research and Education
COVID-19 response
JUSTICE has been engaging extensively with HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) over the impact of COVID-19 on the courts and tribunals. In April 2020 we were concerned that courts and tribunals should continue to afford access to justice as far as possible during the pandemic. We contributed to HMCTS thinking on principles for conducting fair video hearings, advised on guidance across jurisdictions on holding video hearings, and ran our own mock trials to test whether fully remote jury trials could be fair. We worked with volunteer technical professionals at AVMI (now Kinly), legal professionals (including a retired judge, barristers and solicitors at Corker Binning), and lay people to create an optimum video platform for the needs of the trial and to make sure a fair trial could take place. We conducted four tests between April and June 2020, with jurors joining the fourth test from a local hall within walking distance of their homes. This meant that they could deliberate together in person, while still observing social distancing measures. The trials were independently evaluated by academic experts who observed the proceedings and surveyed the participants. They concluded that the format we had used was worthy of serious consideration by HMCTS to address the backlog of cases in the Crown Court. We recommended to Government that our platform be utilised for single issue cases involving one or two defendants (amounting to around 40% of cases). Our tests have led to remote jury trials in Scotland, and legislation being laid before the UK Parliament to enable remote jury trials in England and Wales.
For more information on our Covid-19 response, please see our website: https://justice.org.uk/our-work/justice-covid-19-response/
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Briefings and consultation responses
JUSTICE continues to disseminate detailed submissions on relevant legislation and respond to consultations of parliament and the judiciary that are relevant to our priorities. These are reasoned memoranda that include discussion of relevant law. They are designed to assist parliamentarians of all parties in scrutinising legislation and Government and other bodies in their considerations of the reform of their processes. Throughout the year we briefed on four proposed pieces of legislation and produced sixteen consultation responses. These cover a broad range of access to justice issues. In particular our work on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill in September 2020, which passed into law in March 2021, took considerable time this year. Our fundamental concern was that the Bill would create an unprecedented power for public bodies to authorise covert operatives to commit criminal offences with impunity. Worse, such authorisations may be wrongly given in the first place, potentially creating victims of serious crimes. Over the life of the Bill, we engaged with the Home Office, leading NGOs, experts, and members of Parliament (including our Council members in the Lords) through several written briefings, one to one discussion, and a roundtable event. All amendments that we proposed for debate in the Lords were tabled. In the final version, three amendments that we had proposed were accepted by way of Government amendment – safeguards for children and vulnerable adults, notification to the Information Commissioner ahead of authorisation, and recourse to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for any victim of CHIS crime, notwithstanding its status as “lawful for all purposes”. While these are weaker safeguards than we had aimed for, the extensive referral to our briefing by Peers, tabling of all our proposed amendments and genuine concerns expressed by members of the House of Lords did at least ensure thorough scrutiny.
There have been many consultation exercises over this period relevant to our work. The most important have been the establishment by Government of independent reviews of the Human Rights Act (HRA) and process of judicial review. We discuss these in more detail below.
- Our responses over the financial year can be found at: https://justice.org.uk/our work/bcr/
Third party interventions
JUSTICE continues to intervene selectively before superior domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights, bringing its expertise to assist the court in areas of law relating to the protection of fundamental human rights and the administration of justice.
In the last year, we intervened in the Supreme Court case of R (Begum) v Secretary of State for the Home Department. The case concerned whether an appellant should be granted leave to enter the country to challenge removal of their British citizenship or whether national security interests should prevail. In our intervention we argued a novel point that decisions about deprivation of the right of abode and entry are grounded in ancient common law principles that reciprocally bind subject and State and may only be severed by way of judicial, rather than executive or legislative, action. On 26 February 2021 the UK Supreme Court gave judgment and unfortunately held that Ms
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Begum cannot return to the UK to pursue her appeal. It considered that the national security concerns raised by the Secretary of State outweigh her right to a fair and effective hearing. We were also granted permission to intervene in the European Court of Human Rights, in the case of Nealon and Hallam v UK. This is a long-running case that we previously intervened in before the UK Supreme Court. The case concerns whether the amended compensation scheme for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is incompatible with the presumption of innocence, protected by article 6(2) ECHR. We filed written submissions in March that draw attention to the way international instruments and other jurisdictions interpret the right to compensation and, most importantly, that almost all Contracting Parties to the ECHR (including Scotland and Ireland) have managed to establish tests that do not offend the presumption of innocence. A hearing has not yet been timetabled in the case.
- For more information on our interventions, please consult our website https://justice.org.uk/our work/third-party-interventions/ or contact the JUSTICE office at admin@justice.org.uk.
Reforming the system – our reports
Over the past year, we have published two reports, which have engaged our membership and the wider legal community. These reports were produced through working parties of our membership and invited experts, meeting in committees over the life of the project to identify issues and solutions and taking evidence from relevant sources. We made a series of recommendations relating to each area of the legal system, which we are working to implement. This work sits alongside the continuing implementation work on our previously reported work.
1. Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System
Context
In February we published Tackling Racial Injustice, chaired by Sandra Paul and with the assistance of Travers Smith LLP. At most stages of the youth justice system – from arrest to custody – the proportion of Black and Minority Ethnic young people is higher than the proportion of white young people. This Working Party examined the causes of racial disproportionality in the Youth Justice System (YJS) of England and Wales and sought to ensure that children are not needlessly criminalised by improving the attitudes, processes and procedures in the YJS.
Recommendations
Having sat since October 2019, the Working Party made 45 recommendations which seek to increase decision-makers’ understanding of the child appearing before them. In doing so, the aim is to eradicate, and if not, minimise, the bias, suspicion and misperception that pervades discriminatory exercise of power so as to meet communities’ expectations of fair and impartial treatment at each stage of, and interaction with, the criminal justice system. Key recommendations include:
- Suspending blanket use of ‘section 60’ stop and search powers for serious violence in a locality, until the Home Office has evaluated its impact and effectiveness;
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Abolishing the ‘Gangs Violence Matrix’, which indiscriminately includes thousands of BAME children and young adults, threatening their access to education and jobs;
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Preventing the unfair use of Drill music as bad character evidence in court, to tackle the corrosive effect of portraying a genre of music as innately illegal, dangerous and problematic;
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Creating a national framework for diversion, to ensure children everywhere can receive specialist support not prosecution;
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Expanding initiatives that give children a voice, through access to translators where there is a language barrier, as well as other innovative methods.
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Enforcing mandatory specialist child-focused training for lawyers, as well as high-standard cultural competency training for all criminal justice agencies, so that all those who work with children are able to do so effectively;
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Urgently improving information available to magistrates at bail hearings, so that remand in custody is significantly reduced;
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Requiring all complaints concerning children to be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct; and
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Mandating the police turn on their body worn video cameras before every stop and search, so that improper conduct is prevented or caught.
These changes will help to build a child-first approach into the justice system, with sources of bias and discrimination addressed through changes to policy, institutional culture, and practices. While no one report can undo years of structural racism, we hope to support the continued efforts of communities seeking equal justice.
In this financial year, the Barrow Cadbury Trust has contributed £14,000 of a three-year grant totalling £46,350 (£10,000 in 2019-20) and The Blagrave Trust has contributed £7,500 of a £30,000 grant (£15,000 in 2019-20) over the same period to support the Working Party and its implementation. Travers Smith LLP contributed £10,000 in 2019-20 and are also providing pro bono assistance to support the Working Party.
2. When Things Go Wrong: the response of the justice system
Context
In August 2020 we published When Things Go Wrong, chaired by Sir Robert Owen and supported by Morrison and Foerster (UK) LLP. When a catastrophe takes place leaving many dead or injured, or when people are harmed over a number of years due to systemic failure, the justice system must respond. A tragic incident might spur a range of concurrent legal processes: criminal investigations, disciplinary hearings and civil claims may be initiated that share identical subject matter with an inquiry, inquest or both. The Working Party aimed to make informed recommendations to reform institutional responses to deaths or other serious incidents where a “systemic pattern of failure” is evident. The needs and experiences of the bereaved and survivors have been central to this work and its outcome has been to suggest reforms that will promote public trust in the justice system.
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Recommendations
Having sat for a year, the report records 54 recommendations of the Working Party directed at remedying the shortcomings of how the justice system responds to catastrophe, by building on the strengths of the present system of inquests and public inquiries. Key recommendations include:
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The framework – We propose new State and independent bodies to provide oversight and facilitate information-sharing – a Central Inquiries Unit within Government, a full-time Chief Coroner, and a special procedure inquest for investigating mass fatalities as well as single deaths linked by systemic failure, able to consider closed material and make specific recommendations to prevent recurrence.
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Opening investigations – Greater collaboration between agencies, building a cross-process dossier, would reduce the multiple occasions that bereaved people and survivors have to recount traumatic events and ensure that they are fully informed throughout the process.
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Procedure – Processes for appointing inquiry chairs and panels, for establishing the terms of reference and for providing information and relevant documents to core participants need to be more structured and transparent. Drawing on previous JUSTICE working parties on accessibility, we recommend that bereaved people and survivors are placed at the heart of the process – in choice of hearing space; improved communication and questioning by professionals; and signposting to support services. Aside from the legal formalities, we also call for widespread use of commemorative “pen portraits” and therapeutic spaces for bereaved and survivor testimony.
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A statutory duty of candour, including a rebuttable requirement for position statements, would help foster a “cards on the table” approach. Directing the inquiry to the most important matters early on could result in earlier findings and reduced costs.
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Accountability and systemic change – We conclude that an independent body should lead oversight and monitoring of the implementation of inquest and inquiry recommendations, whose review could aid scrutiny by parliamentary committees.
Morrison & Foerster (UK) LLP supported this working party, donating £15,800 in previous financial years and providing pro bono support. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds.
Events
Due to the restrictions related to the global pandemic we have held less public-facing events during 2020-21. Below is a list of the free events we held, the majority of which were open to the public:
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Mock Jury Trial, 9 April 2020
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JUSTICE internship and fellowship webinar, 9 April 2020
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Mock Jury Trial, 17 April 2020
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When Things Go Wrong: the response of the justice system Working Party report launch, 24 August 2020
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Tom Sargant Memorial Lecture 2020 with Dame Vera Baird DBE QC, 10 November 2020
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JUSTICE Scotland Human Rights Day Lecture 2021, Twenty years of the Human Rights Act: a Scottish Perspective, 21 January 2021
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Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System Working Party report launch, 25 February 2021
We continued to host our Annual Human Rights Law Conference (6-9 July 2020) which this year was held remotely over four evenings. This year we heard keynote addresses from Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, Doughty Street Chambers and Sandie Okoro, General Counsel and Senior Vice-President, World Bank. As well as an engaging cross-party political panel discussing Our rights in times of Coronavirus.
The Human Rights Conference attracts professionals from across the legal profession. Managing it in-house means that we are able to charge a much more affordable fee and offer discounted rates to members, which gives us a more diverse audience.
We also hosted our Student Conference (17-18 March 2021) remotely across two afternoons. We had keynote addresses from Sonali Naik QC, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti. As well as workshops from the JUSTICE staff on Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families, Privatisation and Automation: Impact on Access to Justice and Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System. This year we reduced the delegate fee for nonmembers and made it free for JUSTICE members to attend, recognising the impact the pandemic has had on students.
Hosting virtual events has meant that we have seen an increase in attendee numbers, our JUSTICE Scotland Human Rights Day Lecture webinar had 296 people in attendance, our highest number of attendees to date.
In addition to the above, JUSTICE staff members attended and spoke at a wide range of virtual conferences and events.
Projects
During 2020-21, JUSTICE received funding from several organisations to support a number of our projects.
Administrative Justice Council
The Administrative Justice Council (AJC) was set up to ensure that the administrative justice system is more accessible, fair and effective by improving administrative decision-making, simplifying appeals, complaints procedures and redress mechanisms, and ensuring access to justice for some of the most vulnerable people in society. The AJC is funded by the Ministry of Justice (£20,000 this financial year), The Legal Education Foundation (£15,000 this financial year) and Trust for London (£15,000 this financial year). JUSTICE provides office space, line management and covers any costs not covered by these grants from unrestricted funding.
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The Administrative Justice Council has had a successful year, despite the pandemic. Its work is outlined in its Annual Report.
The AJC is entering its second term for members, with the recent retirement of inaugural Chair and former Senior President of Tribunal, Sir Ernest Ryder. We are delighted that Sir Keith Lindblom, the new Senior President of Tribunals has taken over as the Chair and Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has assumed the new role of Deputy Chair.
Challenging School Exclusions
The Challenging School Exclusions working party was chaired by Professor Richard de Friend and was published in November 2019.
The recommendations in our 2019 report continue to be progressed. Over the past year we have focussed on:
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1) Building positive relations with stakeholders in order to influence change, liaising with the Department for Education and a range of relevant NGOs
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2) Improved statutory guidance, while this has been delayed due to Covid, the DfE would like us to be involved in pre-public consultation stakeholder engagement, and we will also be responding the public consultation on the revised guidance when that is published.
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3) Training on exclusions and equality law for head teachers, governors and Independent Review Panel (IRP) members. As part of our conversations with the DfE we have stressed the need to have better and more nationally consistent training for teachers, governors and IRP members. The DfE has been receptive to this and we are hopeful that this is something that the DfE will pick up following the lifting of Pandemic restrictions.
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4) Clear and accessible information for pupils and parents on their rights and the process, and appropriate support at each stage. During our conversations with the DfE they have agreed that this is important and will be a priority for them as part of the statutory guidance update. They will discuss with us how to produce more accessible guidance for parents and pupils. This is an area we have already been working on with HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and can share useful learning.
The pandemic has necessarily impacted the pace of work in this area, but school exclusions have gone ahead, with remote review hearings. We were consulted by the DfE on the regulations and the guidance for these and secured a number of changes to the guidance. These included that the governors / arranging authority should facilitate remote meetings where the parents and pupil wanted them, including by providing them with equipment where necessary. We also secured a reversal of the extension of time limits for holding hearings, which we were concerned would delay pupils returning to school. We have been told of a number of parents and pupils who, as a result of remote hearings, participated in governing board review meetings when they would not have otherwise done so. We have also been told of a school providing the necessary IT equipment to parents to enable them to participate. We have therefore been discussing with the DfE the possibility of making remote meetings an option beyond the end of the pandemic. We have been told that this is something they are seriously considering, and we are optimistic that they will do so.
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Matrix Chambers supported our working party on Challenging School Exclusions with a £3,000 grant in 2018-19 and provided pro bono support. The Society of the Holy Jesus Child (£7,000 in 2019-20) and Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity (£2,500 2020-21) contributed towards implementation of its report’s recommendations. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds.
Defending the rule of law, access to justice and human rights
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is supporting our work on this, with a three-year grant of £71,597, of which £5,966 was received in this financial year.
This grant has supported our work this year responding to proposed reforms of judicial review and the Human Rights Act. We formed advisory groups to guide our response to these reviews and continue to work on these important proposals for reform. With respect to the HRA review, our response highlighted that there is strong consensus that the HRA in its current form functions very well. The HRA is a well-crafted, delicately balanced piece of legislation. It enables the courts to give effect to and protect the rights of individuals whilst maintaining Parliamentary sovereignty and the balance between the different branches of Government. The advisory group, despite representing diverse experiences in practice, is unanimous that there is no need to amend the HRA (bar some minor amendments to the use of remedial orders). Given the Government’s welcome commitment to remaining a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, there is little scope for any amendment of the HRA without putting the UK in breach of its international obligations or risking an increase in cases involving the UK before the European Court of Human Rights.
With respect to judicial review, we stressed the crucial constitutional role that judicial review plays in the UK’s unwritten constitution. We opposed codification of judicial review on the basis that it would not achieve the stated aims of clarity and accessibility and restrict the grounds for judicial review. Similarly, we oppose making certain categories of executive power non-justiciable, as this would undermine the key constitutional role of the courts in ensuring that the Government acts lawfully. In respect of procedural reforms, we note that there have already been a number of recent reforms which have reduced the overall number of judicial review claims as well as the proportion of those that are unmeritorious. We stress that any restriction of the test for standing, time limits or the duty of candour would have a severe detrimental impact on access to justice. However, we do suggest clarification of which point in the proceedings that the duty of candour arises; the need to consider proposals previously made for costs reforms; and the need to encourage early engagement between the parties to facilitate early resolution of claims.
Immigration and Asylum
The Immigration and Asylum: a Fresh Look working party was chaired by Professor Sir Ross Cranston and published in July 2018. Since then, JUSTICE has been working to ensure that the recommendations from the report are implemented.
Having audited our progress on this project, almost all recommendations are either in train or adopted (45 out of 49). Of those remaining, three relate to digital support services either in
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immigration detention or for appealing outside of the jurisdiction. The fourth relates to age assessments, which is under review as part of the Government’s New Plan for Immigration. We have responded to that consultation and attended roundtable discussions in line with the working party recommendations. Much of the successful adoption of our recommendations has been due to excellent engagement with the Immigration and Asylum Chamber staff and judges, and their willingness to meet to discuss how to implement our proposals. We have been a consultee on the online appeals pilots throughout the year, with a recent walkthrough on the webpages for litigants in person clearly having considered our urging of the need for clear and simple information. The most successful achievement towards our aim of reducing the volume of cases on appeal has been the introduction of a mandatory reconsideration stage, which, having run for a year, has seen the Home Office grant a third of applications appealed to the IAC following review. We are continuing to monitor the progress of reforms in this area.
The Leri Charitable Trust is supporting our work on immigration and asylum with a two-year grant of £10,000 per year, which started in July 2019.
Internship and Career Progression Programme for Disadvantaged Graduates
The Dulverton Trust provided a grant of £36,200 to support JUSTICE’s internship and fellowship programme.
Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families
The Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families working party commenced in January, chaired by Professor Gillian Douglas. Since the legal aid cuts of 2013, private children's cases in England and Wales have become the site of numerous, interrelated, access to justice problems. The proliferation of litigants in person has not only introduced new challenges, such as the proper advice, support, and case management of so many unrepresented litigants, but also exacerbated pre-existing issues, such as the treatment of domestic abuse by the court and the child’s voice being heard within proceedings. This is with particular regard to the effective participation of parents and children; the effect that underlying or co-existing problems may have on what each family member needs from the court; and the principle that the court experience should not cause or exacerbate harm.
Mishcon de Reya LLP is supporting our working party on Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families by joining JUSTICE as a Corporate JUSTICE60 member, as well as providing pro bono support. The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust has also contributed £2,000 towards this work. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds.
Prosecuting Sexual Offences
Recommendations from our 2019 Prosecuting Sexual Offences report continue to be worked on. Our main method of advancing this work over the year was through our position on the Home Office Stakeholder Engagement Group for its Child Sexual Abuse strategy. We have continued to work towards a pilot conditional diversion scheme, liaising with NGO Safer Lives and the National Police Chief’s Council lead on child protection. The year has also seen roll out of improved
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measures for victims of sexual offences giving evidence to court, which we continue to support and monitor.
The Dawes Trust is supporting the implementation work of our Prosecuting Sexual Offences working party, with a two-year grant of £21,275, with £13,057 received in this financial year.
Reforming Benefits Decision-Making
Reforming Benefits Decision-Making is our joint working party with the AJC, chaired by Lord Low of Dalston CBE, with corporate partners Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and BlackRock, which sat throughout this year and is now concluding. The report will be published in July 2021. Recommendations will cover improvements to medical assessments, initial interviews and sanction processes; direct appeal to the tribunal but with mandatory review by DWP upon filing and better notification of the appeal process; a portal operated by DWP which signposts to advice and support services; adoption of Understanding Courts recommendations for simple and accessible information on appealing; and early legal help and co-location of legal advice with other support services.
BlackRock and Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP are supporting our working party on Reforming Benefits Decision-Making, with BlackRock donating £7,452.20 in this financial year. Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP has joined JUSTICE as a corporate JUSTICE60 member and is providing pro bono support. Standard Life are also supporting this working party with a three-year grant of £70,000, with £20,000 received in this financial year.
Solving Housing Disputes
The Solving Housing Disputes working party report, was launched in March 2020 and chaired by Andrew Arden QC.
Housing dispute litigation has been significantly disrupted by the Pandemic. Our own more limited resources have also meant that for the second half of this year we were without a dedicated civil lawyer and unable to make significant progress on this project. Nevertheless, we have cemented collaboration with a number of groups who agree on the need for reform, including joining a Consumer Redress coalition, which has been meeting to consider the creation of an online portal to assist claimants in knowing how to seek help with their housing problems. We had been working on a mediation pilot with the Property Chamber president, the idea of which was suspended while possession hearings were on hold, and is now incorporated into the protocol for those proceedings. We are monitoring this carefully. We are also liaising with the Civil Procedure Rule Committee regarding improvements to pre-action protocols, which will be considered once the possession process is fully resumed. We will continue to prioritise this work with our new civil lawyer who joined us in May 2021.
Howard Kennedy LLP supported our working party on Solving Housing Disputes with a donation of £3,151 towards the costs of producing the report in 2019-20, as well as providing pro bono support to the working party. The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust provided us with a one-year
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grant of £5,000 for implementation in this financial year. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds.
Therium Access grant
Therium Access contributed towards salary costs across our projects to help JUSTICE continue our work reforming the United Kingdom’s justice system to increase access to justice and protect human rights for everyone. This funding supported our briefing, court intervention and Covid-19 response work, as well as progress of other projects such as Solving Housing Disputes, Understanding Courts and Preventing Digital Exclusion , the latter two of which have been influencing the HMCTS Reform Programme across the courts and tribunals, as well as its response to the pandemic.
In particular, in January 2021, we published an updated report on our Mental Health and Fair Trial work, which highlights developments over the past three years. Two thirds of our
recommendations are now in train across all aspects of the criminal justice process, and mental health has recently been highlighted by the Ministry of Justice as a major area of reform it aims to focus on. Highlights include: the Sentencing Council and Crown Prosecution Service acted on our recommendations for guidelines for judges and prosecutors respectively; new Criminal Procedure Rules and court forms prompt identification of vulnerability with easy read versions for litigants in person; and we influenced the Equality and Human Rights Commission to carry out an inquiry, which we advised on.
Membership
Due to the pandemic, this year we focused on providing a diverse suite of virtual events for our members and to attract prospective members. We held events with Lord Briggs of Westbourne speaking about the Supreme Courts response to Coronavirus, and Sir Geoffrey Vos, then Chancellor of the High Court, speaking about access to justice in an age of coronavirus. As well as a series of career conversations with:
| • | Rupert Skilbeck | • | Paul Yates | • | Victoria Butler-Cole |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| • | Sonali Naik QC | • | Dame Maura | QC | |
| • | Shelagh McCall QC | McGowan DBE | • | Professor Philippa | |
| • | Natalia Schiffrin | • | Thalia Maragh | Webb | |
| • | Sir Edward Murray | • | Sheriff Tony Kelly | • | Dean Kingham |
| • | Rosa Curling | • | Walter Merricks CBE |
We also streamlined our administration processes and targeted our communications to help members make the most of their membership experience. As a result of streamlining our processes, hosting online events and continuing to offer internships to our student members only, at the end of the 2020-21 financial year, JUSTICE had 2,066 members (up from 1,672 in 2020), which is an increase of just under 24% and our highest membership total to date. This resulted in an increase in membership income with a total of £105,348 (£98,842 for 2019-20).
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In November 2020, we held our first ever virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM). Holding this virtually meant that more members were able to attend, and we had 85 members join us on Zoom. The meeting saw Walter Merricks CBE our Chair of four years retire and Peter Binning elected as the new Chair for a four-year term. Our members heard reports on our work and fundraising from Walter Merricks CBE, Karyl Nairn QC, Chair of the Development Board, Andrea Coomber, Director of JUSTICE and Sir Robert Owen, Chair of the When Things Go Wrong Working Party. The members re-elected two Board Members for another term and appointed three new Council members. The AGM was followed by our annual Tom Sargant Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dame Vera Baird DBE QC speaking on ‘From Bystander to Participant? Victims and Witnesses in the Criminal Justice System’.
Fundraising
As an expected result of the pandemic, we saw an overall decrease in our donation income of just over 7% this year (£475,926 this year down from £514,956 in 2019-20). As predicted, corporate funding was greatly reduced due to many firms and organisations putting their charitable giving on hold. However, as of the beginning of the 2021-22 financial year we have seen a change in this trend and hope next year will be better for corporate funding.
We were fortunate this year to have a generous anonymous donor agree to match up to £40,000 in new donations, which was reached and brought a much-needed boost to our income in a difficult year.
Our JUSTICE60 , a special group of supporters who individually pledge to donate £6,000 or corporately £10,000 a year for three years to JUSTICE, has been transformational to our fundraising for many years and during the pandemic was a continued strength.
We focused on creating an even greater sense of community with our JUSTICE60 during this turbulent time by hosting more events virtually so that people could attend from wherever the pandemic had led them. This resulted in greater attendance at events and the ability for us to cultivate many new relationships which we are already starting to see come to fruition in the 2021-22 financial year. Our events during the 2020-21 financial year included a fireside chat with Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, a discussion with acclaimed historian and commentator Niall Ferguson, renowned Channel 4 Broadcaster and journalist Jon Snow, Sterling Professor of International Law from Yale Law University Harold Hongju Koh, British Diplomat and former Downing Street Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell, and a Christmas celebration.
As result of these efforts, we had eighteen JUSTICE60 members and firms renew their membership for a further three years and five new individuals join. Seventeen members decided not to renew, this led to a decrease in JUSTICE60 donations (£286,000 2020-21 down from £307,700 in 20192020).
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We are extremely grateful to all our JUSTICE60 members, past and present, for their continued support during one of the most difficult fundraising years in history and especially, to our loyal and hardworking Development Board Chair, Karyl Nairn QC.
JUSTICE now has 129 (128 in 2019-20) Friends of JUSTICE ; these are our regular donors who donate at least £240 per year and provided us with £36,867 (£36,067 for 2019-20) of unrestricted income. This year we held an annual Friends appreciation event in December 2020, where Friends heard from Lord Dyson on the Independent Review of Administrative Law and our response highlighting the vital constitutional role of judicial review and the need to consider any proposals for reform in this context. This year we invited long standing JUSTICE members to attend the Friends event to encourage them to consider becoming Friends. We will continue this practice and plan to introduce a second annual Friends event next financial year to focus on recruiting new Friends of JUSTICE.
JUSTICE’s Development Board, chaired by Karyl Nairn QC continued to focus on growing our fundraising pipeline for; the JUSTICE60, major donors and securing funding needed for the refurbishment of 59 Carter Lane.
We are grateful to the JUSTICE Board, Council, Development Board, JUSTICE60, Friends, Members and partners that supported us with donations and introductions in this difficult and turbulent year. We would not have been able to do it without their support.
Trusts and foundations and corporate support
We knew that Trusts and Foundations would play an important role in our income in 2020-21 due to the decrease in corporate support as a result of the pandemic. To this end, we decided to focus our efforts on increasing the number of applications we submitted and applied to 59 trusts and foundations over the year submitting applications with asks totalling over £1.5 million to help bridge any funding gaps. The Development team also continued to focus on maintaining our
relationships with Corporates and increasing the support we receive either in the form of monetary donations or pro bono support. This resulted in us being awarded new grants totalling £224,072 (£100,223 received in this financial year), as well as £18,565 in new corporate income. Given the competitiveness of the charitable market in 2020 and the focus on many trusts and foundations shifting to welfare and advice, this is a remarkable achievement, and it has also boosted our trust and foundation pipeline greatly for the coming year.
Over the year, we have received a number of grants from trusts and foundations and donations from corporates, both as restricted and unrestricted income, detailed below.
We received new restricted grants or donations from:
- Standard Life Foundation (£70,000 over three years, with £20,000 received in this financial year) and BlackRock Gives (£7,452) to support our Reforming Benefits Decision-Making Working Party.
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The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust (£2,000) to support our Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families Working Party.
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The 21 May 1961 Charitable Trust (£5,000) to contribute towards our Solving Housing Disputes implementation work.
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The Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity (£2,500) for our work on Challenging School Exclusions.
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The Dulverton Trust (£36,200) to support our internship and fellowship programme.
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The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (£71,597 over three years, £5,966 received in this financial year) to support our work on Constitutional Reform.
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The Dawes Trust (two-year grant of £21,275, £13,057 received in this financial year) for follow on funding to help implement the recommendations form the Prosecuting Sexual Offences Working Party.
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Trust for London (three-year grant of £45,000, £15,000 received in this financial year) for a recommitment to support the Administrative Justice Council (AJC).
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Westminster University to fund an intern (£2,703) and the catering at an event (£410) for the Administrative Justice Council.
The Barrow Cadbury Trust, The Blagrave Trust, The Leri Charitable Trust, Trust for London and the Ministry of Justice continued to support us with restricted multi-year grants on existing projects, details of which can be found in the projects section of this report (page 14).
Unrestricted support rose by just over 40% to £105,500 (£75,100 in 2019-20). We have received new unrestricted grants or donations from:
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The Jolanta and Max Neufeld Charitable Trust (£5,000)
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The Simmons and Simmons Charitable Foundation (£10,000)
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The Revilo Trust (£500)
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City of London Corporation (£10,000)
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Jenner & Block LLP (£5,000)
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Montfort (£3,000)
The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust (£25,000), the Allen and Overy Foundation (£10,000), The Evan Cornish Foundation (£10,000), Herbert Smith Freehills LLP (£5,000), the Laura Kinsella Foundation (£1,000), The Stewarts Foundation (£6,000) and the Treebeard Trust (£15,000) continued to provide unrestricted income towards our core costs.
We are very grateful to the Trust and Foundations and Corporations who have supported our work during this difficult year.
Approach to fundraising
JUSTICE employs a Development Director who manages our Fundraising Officer, Membership and Communications Coordinator and Development Administrator and takes the lead on our fundraising activities. Our main focus for fundraising is around major donors, corporate support and grants from Trust and Foundations. We host small events throughout the year to attract
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potential donors. Any fundraising events are organised by our Development team. JUSTICE does not use professional fundraisers or involve commercial participators. There have been no complaints about fundraising activity this year.
Beneficiaries of our services
Our system-change approach benefits all those involved in the justice system include practising lawyers, judges, students of law and policymakers interested in the development and protection of the rule of law and human rights, and the public at large, who benefit from a robust justice system that protects their rights.
Financial review
For the year ended 31 March 2021, JUSTICE recorded a net deficit, before other recognised gains and losses, of £46,627 (2020: £32,148 surplus). Our investments recovered from the losses of the previous year when the Covid-19 global pandemic had just hit, which unsurprisingly resulted in drop in value. This year they made gains of £31,468 reducing our deficit to £15,159 (2020: £8,514 surplus). Given the uncertainty of the 2020-21 financial year and the fundraising challenges JUSTICE has faced, this is less of a deficit than we expected.
Income
Total income received in 2020/21 decreased by just over 5% to £911,346 (2020: £964,081). Details of how this has arisen are shown below.
Donations and legacies
The level of donations and legacies saw a decrease in 2020-21 to £475,926 (2020: £514,956), this is mainly due to a drop in income from general donations and several our JUSTICE60 members not renewing their commitment at the end of their three-year term, although our success rate for renewals has been over 50% and provided us with £286,000 of unrestricted income in 2020-21 (2020: £307,700). A number of donors have expressed their desire to support smaller, local charities as a result of the pandemic.
We have seen an increase in our Friends and donated services donations which is the result of the hard work of our Development team, supported by the Development Board.
Charitable activities
Income towards our Research and Education activities has increased for 2020-21 (2021: £299,483, 2020: £288,741), although this is a small increase, given the fundraising climate during the year this is a remarkable achievement and is down to the hard work of our Fundraising Officer and Development Administrator who have identified new sources of Trust and Foundation income. This has led to several grants from new funders, to add to our existing multiyear grants.
Membership income has increased by nearly 7% this year to £105,348 (2020: £98,842), this increase mainly relates to student members and is as a result of increased member engagement
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due to the increase in member events we held, and internships offered. We continue to look at ways of growing and retaining our members.
Trading activities
Income for our trading activities has decreased by nearly 60%. This is mainly due to us being unable to host an in person fundraising event this year and is also due to us providing a rent-free period to our tenant, who as a small charity has also suffered with a reduction of income due to pandemic and has not been able to work from Carter Lane for most of the 2020-21 financial year.
Investments
Investment income was £8,805 (2020: £7,835).
Expenditure
Total expenditure in 2020/21 showed an increase of just under 3% (2021: £957,973 v 2020: £931,933).
Staff costs
Staff costs account for nearly 86% of the total costs of the organisation and have increased by just over 9% from 2019/20. This is because in the 2019-20 financial year, an independent review was carried out of JUSTICE salary scales and a benchmarking exercise undertaken for staff salaries. This resulted in new salary scales being adopted, the movement of some staff across scales and an increase to all staff salaries. During the year the total average FTE headcount decreased to 16.3 (2020: 16.9), with the employed number remaining at 20 (2020: 20). Further details of staff costs and staffing levels can be found in notes 6 & 7 to the accounts and the staffing and volunteers section of this report.
Costs of generating funds
The cost of generating funds which makes up just over 10% of our overall expenditure, has decreased this year from £111,788 to £98,223. This includes fundraising salary costs, costs associated with fundraising materials and publicity expenditure plus an allocation of salary and overhead costs based on staff time attributable to the fundraising function, more details can be found in note 1 (j) of the accounts.
Endowment Fund
JUSTICE holds the freehold property on Carter Lane, which was purchased as part on an appeal back in the 1990’s, and some listed investments (Charishare) which are held as part of an expendable endowment fund. During the year in question, the endowment was used to fund depreciation on fixed assets. These investments form part of our reserves.
Designated Fund
Designated funds have been set aside by the Trustees to fund staff time spent on our Working Parties, which are not always attractive to funders but form an essential part of JUSTICE’s work and the Administrative Justice Council.
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The charity has sufficient resources to settle its liabilities as they fall due in the foreseeable future.
The Finance Committee reviews our investments at every meeting. We have not needed to draw down on these during the year. This year our investments made a gain: the value at 31 March 2021 was £285,893, up from £254,425 at 31 March 2020.
Principal risks and uncertainties
JUSTICE reviewed its risk management process in 2019, agreeing a new risk management strategy. This included the development of a Strategic risk register which details the external risks to JUSTICE which are identified as important but outside of our control, with the effects mitigated through response plans and management actions. Risks associated with our operations and projects will continue to be managed through our operational risk register, which was reviewed in this financial year and a new format developed. See below for a summary of the risks covered in the Strategic risk register.
These risks are overseen by the relevant staff members and the Finance Committee. Our Finance Committee is now developing an assurance framework to test that internal controls are working properly, and they will provide regular updates to the Board on the outcome of these.
The main strategic risks for JUSTICE are as follows.
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External influences: A decline in funding and donations due to external influences such as Covid-19, Brexit or resultant economic downturn , which increases our risk of financial instability and could impact the security of our funding streams.
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This risk is mitigated through: A diverse funding base which includes members, trusts and foundations, corporates, JUSTICE60 donors, Friends of JUSTICE and other regular donors, which is in line with our fundraising and organisational strategy. An engaged Development Board and Chair who are focused on identifying new sources of funding. A strong reserves position to ensure sustainability, with the added security of owning the building should we need to access additional funds in the event of financial uncertainty. A regular review of our reserves policy.
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Further management actions have been agreed which include: development of longer financial projections, so we are more aware of funding needs for future years in addition to the current financial year; and drawing up contingency plans to handle a cut in funding at various levels.
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Data breach: Loss of data through data breach, cyber-attack, server failure or human error Cyber-attack is now one of the largest concerns for businesses. Despite adoption of all recommended protections and processes, the changing nature of cyber-attack means that there will still be a risk, which we will be unable to completely mitigate or manage. A data breach or cyber security incident could result in legal, contractual and/or regulatory consequences, as well as reputational damage.
This risk is mitigated through: having a dedicated IT supplier who ensure that we have strong IT systems in place, Firewall and antivirus software installed, software and operating systems
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regularly updated with security patches, and our database and email are hosted securely in the cloud. In March 2021 we upgraded our network to SharePoint so the whole network is located offsite and hosted by Microsoft Azure. We have clear Data Protection, Data Breach and IT policies which staff are regularly reminded of and all staff received online GDPR and cyber security training annually. We have Cyber Essentials Plus certificate which renews annually and sees our network, policies and procedures independently audited and tested. We also have cyber security insurance in place, to insure us against an unfortunate breach. Our business continuation and response plan has been tested with the Blackbaud data breach and worked well.
Further management actions have been agreed which include: Develop an assurance process to ensure compliance with policies.
- Demonstrating impact: As a law reform organisation working to strengthen the justice system through practical proposals for reform, it can sometimes be difficult for JUSTICE to demonstrate impact. This could lead to key funders withdrawing or significantly reducing funding, because they perceive that JUSTICE is not being effective, demonstrating impact, or is not undertaking activities that fit their funding priorities. This would increase our risk of financial instability, could impact our staff numbers and lead to a reduction in work output, with knock-on effects for management and administrative overheads. Cutting management and administration staff would reduce the charity’s capacity to regrow.
This risk is mitigated through: close liaison with key funders to ensure that we understand their expectations, share and invest them in our vision and regularly update them on our work and impact; ongoing research of alternative funding sources and; monitoring the impact of our work. We have developed a Theory of Change based on our 2021-24 Strategy, which provides detailed monitoring and evaluation methods to capture evidence of our impact.
Further management actions have been agreed which include: A review of our monitoring and evaluation indicators outlined in the Theory of Change to ensure we are accurately capturing the impact of our working party recommendations and collecting evidence for funding reports and applications; continued research into alternative forms of funding for charitable activities and; development of contingency plans to handle a cut in funding at various levels.
- Reputational: Media or other organisations publish highly critical, slanderous and/or inflammatory opinions on our work, which could result in a loss of reputation for excellence and impartiality; confidence of Council members and/or members and/or donors of JUSTICE. This risk is mitigated through: policy initiatives grounded in and supported by JUSTICE working party reports or external research findings and aligned with strategic aims; ongoing discussions with the Director, Board and other expert stakeholders for the duration of the project, with risk considered as part of these discussions; wherever possible evaluation, or at a minimum engagement, by academic partners; a communications plan in place around the operation of the project including the nature of the questions being tested and the release of any report; and a response plan has been developed which staff can follow plan to manage any reputational risk following negative media commentary.
Further management actions have been agreed which include: Maintain and develop
relationships with academic partners and other experts and keep response plan under review.
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During 2020, our response to strategic risk two was tested when we were informed that our database provider, Blackbaud, had been involved in a data breach. Having previously identified this as a risk we had plans in place to respond to this quickly and mitigate the impact to JUSTICE and our stakeholders. Blackbaud confirmed that a small section of our encrypted data was stolen, though it was confident that it had been destroyed. We carried out our own investigation, which determined that there was no significant risk to the data subjects. Despite the minimal risk we informed the relevant data subjects of the breach and reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the Charity Commission. The ICO confirmed that no regulatory action would be taken, as examination of the evidence determined that we had acted with due diligence. The Charity Commission confirmed that the trustees dealt with the matter appropriately and responsibly. Since the incident there have been no reported incidents involving the misuse of any affected data and we have worked with Blackbaud to ensure further security enhancements are implemented to minimise the risk of recurrence.
Reserves policy and going concern
Both the Board and JUSTICE's supporters recognise that the organisation operates in a policy environment that requires a long-term commitment if it is to achieve its mission. Being a research and educational organisation, it is the work undertaken by JUSTICE's staff that forms JUSTICE's charitable activities. Therefore, it is the view of the Board that JUSTICE needs a reserves level that will enable it to continue to attract the highest level of legal expertise and, in so doing, meet its long-term commitments to its supporters and beneficiaries.
Each year the Board reviews the reserves policy, taking into consideration any major risks and the impact these could have on planned income and expenditure. Our current policy is that unrestricted reserves on average are equivalent to at least six months’ of running costs (c£477,000 based on our 2021-22 budget) are needed if JUSTICE is to deliver on its commitments, meet the long-term expectations of its supporters and beneficiaries, and continue to attract the highest level of legal expertise with which to do so.
It has been important to us to grow JUSTICE so that we can keep up with demands of the work that is needed, and we believe we have done this in a sustainable way. Whilst JUSTICE is now in a much stronger financial position than in the past, it remains important that we maintain our reserves at the agreed level. We keep a close eye on these and our cash flow throughout the year.
At the start of the 2020-21 financial year, it was not clear what impact COVID-19 would have on our income streams, what we had planned to be a year of growth for JUSTICE had to be revised and our expenditure greatly reduced by not recruiting new staff members or replacing those that left. Having survived the year with much less impact than anticipated and attempting to cover the work among existing lawyers, the demands on our work necessitated us recruiting a new lawyer, who joined us in May 2021. Whilst we have ended the year with a strong reserves position, we anticipate a deficit in 2021-22. In the coming year, we have a target of raising £350k of new income from members, major donors, trust and foundations, and corporates.
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At the close of 31 March 2021, JUSTICE had £477,797 (£481,803 2019-20) in general reserves which is in line with the Board’s reserves policy. JUSTICE’s reserve funds are held in a mix of
deposit accounts and fixed interest and equity-based common investment funds, with the aim of achieving a combination of income and capital growth.
These reserves are comprised of general unrestricted funds and endowment funds that are not tangible fixed assets (general unrestricted funds of £385,833 less tangible fixed assets of £14,561plus our expendable endowment investments of £106,525). See note 15a of the accounts for more details.
JUSTICE’s Board will continue to review its reserves policy on an annual basis and will keep its investment and treasury management policy under regular review, particularly in the light of reduced deposit interest rates.
Plans for the future from JUSTICE Director, Andrea Coomber
JUSTICE has another exciting but challenging year ahead.
We have commenced a new strategy period (2021-24), with defined themes of work for the next four years. Across all our work we will address:
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Institutional weakness: considering ways to strengthen the operation of key institutions and frameworks in the justice system, testing them for fairness, accessibility and efficiency.
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Procedural deficiency: identifying and challenging unfair, inaccessible and inefficient legal procedures. We will examine the potential of technology and innovation in delivering justice – including alternatives to traditional justice processes – and consider its emerging impact on the system.
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Biases in the justice system: exploring and confronting the ways in which the justice system adversely treats and impacts upon individuals and groups based on their status and/or protected characteristics including race, gender, disability and/or socio-economic status.
More than ever, during this strategy period, we will strive to tackle urgent and important issues within the constraints of the current social, economic, and political climate. The strategy, which can be found here https://justice.org.uk/about-us/our-strategy/, details our main policy, development and organisational priorities for the period and we look forward to reporting on our achievements against these in next year’s report.
The strategy sees us continue to form working parties of our members and we currently have a number of projects in train. The first, Reforming Benefits Decision-Making , seeks to ensure people who need to use the benefits system can get the support they need through accurate and timely decision-making; the second A Parole System fit for Purpose is examining the role, powers, and procedures of the Parole Board and the broader parole system of England and Wales, aiming to ensure that those involved in the parole process are not detained for longer than is necessary and lawful; the third, Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families will undertake a child-
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centred review of what families need from the Family Court when they seek help with child arrangements, with particular emphasis on domestic abuse victims and unrepresented litigants.
These three projects will result in reports in June and September 2021 respectively, with the final project expected to complete in early 2022. All will draw on the expertise of our members, supported by our staff.
We will start new Working Parties in 2021/22 on ensuring that privatisation, automation, and civil orders with criminal consequences do not inhibit effective challenge to decision-making through courts, tribunals and other complaints mechanisms. We will continue to follow up on past reports and policy work by capturing whether our activities and interventions have paved the way for desired outcomes.
We will continue to monitor cases proceeding before the courts with a view to making third party interventions in the Supreme Court in cases significant to JUSTICE’s objectives.
We will continue to monitor the HMCTS Reform Programme, urging that it increase access and fairness in the courts and tribunals. We will explore and evaluate ways in which the integrity of the courts and justice process can be maintained as they adapt to the impact of COVID-19. We will lead thinking on which aspects of the COVID-19 response should remain, be revised or be discarded as courts ‘return to normal’. As indicated under projects above, we are responding to proposed Government reforms to the role of judicial review and amendment of the Human Rights Act, and expect to soon address questions about the operation of the Supreme Court. We will continue to examine judicial appointments, with a view to increasing judicial diversity. We continue to brief politicians across parties on legislation going through Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments that relate to the justice system and respond to consultations of government and the judiciary on key justice issues.
As the effects of the pandemic are becoming clearer and we start on our roadmap out of lockdown, we plan to take lessons learned from this year to strength and grow our Development function.
First, we will continue to host a suite of virtual and in-person events, to allow better engagement across the UK and for the international supporters we have gained in the past year. We already have our Race to the Bench event planned in May and our Inspiring Women fundraising event in June, which we hope will boost our fundraising income. We will host more events that showcase the impact of our work at JUSTICE on society and our communities so that our donors can better understand the impact their donation is having, the first of these is planned for June 2021.
Second, we will continue to streamline our membership process, reviewing our member benefits and creating a better membership experience, in the hope of increasing our membership. We have set ourselves a goal of 10% growth for membership income in 2021-22.
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Third, we will expand our audience and reach through social and traditional media, strategic communications, and targeted messaging.
And lastly, we will continue to focus on the diversification of our income, our membership, our donors, our supporters, and our advocates to ensure our sustainable and continued growth as we enter yet another year of uncertainty. We have already seen some of our work on building relationships in 2020-21 come to fruition with a number of corporates expressing an interest in supporting our work with monetary donations and three new members join the JUSTICE60.
We will continue to support The Administrative Justice Council (AJC) in achieving its objectives as set out in its business plan through our dedicated secretariat function. If you would like to hear more about the work of the AJC you can subscribe to its newsletter, by emailing ajc@justice.org.uk.
Finally, I would like to thank our members, donors, funders and staff for their continued support, without which none of the work in this report would be possible and we would be unable to complete our plans for the year ahead.
Structure, governance and management
Staffing and volunteers
JUSTICE has a small staff team, which shrank slightly over the past year. Tariq Desai, our Criminal Justice Lawyer, and Oda Foldoy, our Communications Coordinator, left us to move to Oda’s home country of Norway. Alex Walters, our Civil Justice Lawyer, left us to return to Australia. Tyrone Steele joined us a Criminal Justice Lawyer and Maddy Breen as Membership and Communications Coordinator.
We were also able to offer a number of new Legal Fellowships this year to Aymen Ati, Abby Buttle, Ellen Grant, Aislinn Kelly-Lyth, Daniel McKaveney and Florence Powell. These fellowships were in addition to our normal legal internships, one of which was funded by Westminster University to support the AJC’s Health/advice partnership project.
Our permanent staff complement at the end of March 2021 was 14 with ten full-time and five part-time employees, this full-time equivalent (Note 7) increases to 20 when we include staff who
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have left within the year and our legal interns. We are proud to pay all our interns/fellows the London Living Wage and to be a registered London Living Wage Employer.
The volume of work detailed above would not be possible without all those who volunteered their services to JUSTICE. We would like to extend our thanks to the many eminent lawyers, judges and politicians who have contributed to our reports, our conferences and seminars, and helped us to raise the profile of JUSTICE over the last year.
Governance
The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 26 June 1996 and registered as a charity on 10 October 1996.
The company was established under a memorandum of association, which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its articles of association. In 2015, we amended our memorandum of association and regulations so that members of JUSTICE are members of the Company of JUSTICE, and are able to be elected, directly to the JUSTICE Board.
JUSTICE Council
The JUSTICE Council is an advisory body to the Board and is asked to:
-
evaluate JUSTICE’s work and provide suggestions for the future direction of JUSTICE’s work;
-
advise on JUSTICE policy with respect to challenging issues of the day;
-
assist JUSTICE staff by providing contacts, for example, for the purposes of advancing policy work, fundraising and profile raising; and
-
be part of a network of support for JUSTICE and its staff.
JUSTICE Board
JUSTICE Board Members are elected from individual members of JUSTICE and are Directors of the Charity for the purposes of the Companies Act and the charity trustees as defined by section 177 of the Charities Act and are referred to as Board members throughout this report.
All Board Members give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity.
The present Board Members and any previous Board Members for this financial year are listed on page 1 of this report.
The JUSTICE Board is responsible for the overall governance of JUSTICE. There must be a minimum of three members and a maximum of fifteen, we currently have fourteen in post. The Board meet at least four times per year, where they consider overall strategy, operational performance and the financial situation.
The Director of JUSTICE, Andrea Coomber works closely with the Board, meeting regularly with the Chair of the Board, Peter Binning, and consulting other Board members as required.
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JUSTICE is managed on a daily basis by the Senior Management Team, comprised of Jodie Blackstock, Legal Director; Samantha Burridge, Director of Operations; and Amanda Miller, Director of Development, and is headed up by the Director, Andrea Coomber. Samantha Burridge meets regularly with the Treasurer, Rachel Sexton, to review and discuss financial reports.
Appointment of Board Members
JUSTICE generally recruits Board members from within our membership. In order to be appointed to the Board, you need to be a JUSTICE member and be nominated by two members of JUSTICE, nominations being made in writing to the Director at least seven days before the Annual General Meeting. Board members have the power to appoint any person at any time to the Board to fill a vacancy, although this person will stand down and be re-elected at the next Annual General Meeting.
The Chair of the Board is nominated by the Board and subject to the approval of the members at the AGM.
In line with the recommendations of the UK Charity Governance Review 2016. Board members can only serve for two three-year terms and the Chair for one term, of four years.
Board Members induction and training
All new Board Members are inducted by the JUSTICE Director, invited to meet with JUSTICE staff, and are provided with an induction pack which includes the Charity Commission guidance on the responsibilities of Trustees, the Charity Governance Code and copies of JUSTICE’s Articles of Association, Regulations, latest strategy, annual review, accounts and organisational structure.
All staff and Board members are offered the opportunity to pair up, with the Board member providing mentoring to the staff member. This has proved valuable to both the staff and Board member.
All Board Members are encouraged to attend training sessions offered by our Auditor on the roles and responsibilities of Trustees and the dates of these training sessions are circulated on a regular basis.
Finance Committee
JUSTICE’S Finance Committee is usually made up of JUSTICE Board Members, although membership of the committee is also open to members of JUSTICE. The members in 2020-21 were:
Rachel Sexton (Treasurer), Peter Binning (Chair of the JUSTICE Board, from November 2020), Walter Merricks CBE (Chair of the JUSTICE Board, until November 2020), Nick Benson, Liz Campbell, Manu Duggal and Christina Liciaga.
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The Finance Committee met four times in 2020-21. Meetings were also attended by the JUSTICE Director and Director of Operations.
The Finance Committee’s role is to:
-
review the detailed draft annual budget and recommend its approval to the Board;
-
monitor in-year financial performance via receipt of the monthly management accounts and monitor the overall financial position via regular cash and investment reports;
-
review the statutory accounts and Trustees’ annual report and recommend them to the Board;
-
review and act upon, where appropriate, the findings from the annual audit as detailed in the post audit report;
-
review the relationship with the auditor and ensure that independence and objectivity is maintained;
-
review and maintain an up to date risk register;
-
ensure organisational policies that are important to the financial health of the charity are relevant and up to date (e.g. reserves, trading, whistle-blowing, disaster recovery policies);
-
act as a sounding board and provide advice and guidance to the Director and Finance Officer in meeting their responsibilities; and
-
monitor the performance of the finance department and discuss and review any proposals for significant structural and operational changes.
Remuneration policy for key management personnel
JUSTICE is committed to ensuring a proper balance between: (i) paying our staff and others who work for us fairly so that we attract and retain the best people for the job, and (ii) careful management of our charity funds. In so doing, we will ensure the greatest effectiveness in delivering our charitable objectives and meeting the needs of our beneficiaries.
JUSTICE’s Finance Committee assumes the responsibilities of a remuneration committee and comprises the Chair (ex-officio) and Treasurer of JUSTICE along with at least two other Board Members. Formal consideration of remuneration matters takes place annually, usually at the Finance Committee’s February/March meeting during a private session. However, remuneration matters may also be considered at other meetings if ad hoc issues arise during the year. The Director attends Committee meetings but leaves when his/her remuneration is discussed.
The annual formal considerations of the Finance Committee are to:
-
determine and keep under review the salary banding of all staff, using such market comparators as it deems suitable and taking account of the nature of the posts being considered;
-
determine and review the remuneration package of the Director;
-
determine any annual percentage ‘cost of living’ change in the payroll;
-
determine whether there should be any exceptional consolidated or non-consolidated pay awards or salary increases for any staff;
-
review pension arrangements; and
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- ensure that contractual terms on termination are fair to the individual and the charity, that good performance is recognised and poor performance is not rewarded.
The Finance Committee does not have fully delegated authority in these matters and any recommendations or decisions must be ratified by the Board prior to implementation.
Statement of responsibilities of Board Members
JUSTICE Board Members (who are also directors of JUSTICE for the purposes of company law and the charity trustees as defined by section 177 of the Charities Act 2011) are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ annual report and the financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company law requires the Board to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Board are required to:
-
Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
-
Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
-
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
-
State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
-
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
Board Members are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended). They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
In so far as the Board are aware:
-
There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware;
-
The Board has taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.
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Trustees’ annual report
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The Board are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at March 2021 was 2,066 (2020: 1,672 ). The Board are members of the charity, but this entitles them only to voting rights. The Board have no beneficial interest in the charity.
Auditor
Sayer Vincent LLP was re-appointed as the charitable company's auditor during the year and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.
The Trustees’ annual report has been approved by the Board on 6 July 2021 and signed on their behalf by
Rachel Sexton Board Member and Treasurer
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JUSTICE
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of JUSTICE (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 March 2021 which comprise the statement of financial activities, balance sheet, statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
-
Give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2021 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended
-
Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
-
Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended)
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on JUSTICE's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
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Other Information
The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
-
The information given in the trustees’ annual report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
-
The trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements
Matters on which we are required to report by exception
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:
-
Adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
-
The financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
-
Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
-
We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or
-
● The directors were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in
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preparing the trustees’ annual report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.
Responsibilities of trustees
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with regulations made under those Acts.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.
Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:
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JUSTICE
-
We enquired of management, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the charity’s policies and procedures relating to:
-
Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
-
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
-
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
-
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
-
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the charity from our professional and sector experience.
-
We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit.
-
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
-
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
-
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.
-
In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.
Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might
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state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
Joanna Pittman (Senior statutory auditor) 15 July 2021
for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditor Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, LONDON, EC1Y 0TL
Sayer Vincent LLP is eligible to act as auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006
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Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)
For the year ended 31 March 2021
| For the year ended 31 March 2021 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Note Income from: 2 3 3 Fundraising Rental income 4a 5 Reconciliation of funds: Investments Total income Expenditure on: Other trading activities Donations and legacies Charitable activities Research and education Membership Raising funds Net income / (expenditure) for the year Total expenditure Net (expenditure) / income before investments Charitable activities Research and education Membership Total funds brought forward Net gain / (loss) on investments Total funds carried forward Transfers between funds Net movement in funds |
Endowment Fund £ - - - - - - |
Restricted Funds £ - 176,788 - - - - |
Unrestricted Funds £ 475,926 122,695 105,348 - 21,784 8,805 |
2021 Total £ 475,926 299,483 105,348 - 21,784 8,805 |
Endowment Fund £ - - - - - - |
Restricted Funds £ 10,000 192,148 - - - - |
Unrestricted Funds 2020 Total £ £ 504,956 514,956 96,593 288,741 98,842 98,842 22,240 22,240 31,467 31,467 7,835 7,835 761,933 964,081 111,143 111,788 564,860 756,303 63,437 63,842 739,440 931,933 (10,238) (23,634) 12,255 8,514 - - 12,255 8,514 553,096 1,001,979 565,351 1,010,493 22,493 32,148 |
| - | 176,788 | 734,558 | 911,346 | - | 202,148 | ||
| 601 2,964 414 |
- 251,344 - |
97,622 539,991 65,037 |
98,223 794,299 65,451 |
645 2,929 405 |
- 188,514 - |
||
| 3,979 | 251,344 | 702,650 | 957,973 | 3,979 | 188,514 | ||
| 20,660 (3,979) |
- (74,556) |
10,808 31,908 |
31,468 (46,627) |
(13,396) (3,979) |
- 13,634 |
||
| 16,681 - |
(74,556) 47,234 |
42,716 (47,234) |
(15,159) - |
(17,375) - |
13,634 - |
||
| 16,681 400,172 |
(27,322) 44,970 |
(4,518) 565,351 |
(15,159) 1,010,493 |
(17,375) 417,547 |
13,634 31,336 |
||
| 416,853 | 17,648 | 560,833 | 995,334 | 400,172 | 44,970 |
All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 14 to the financial statements.
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JUSTICE
Balance sheet
Company no. 3216897
As at 31 March 2021
| Note Fixed assets: 10 11 Current assets: 12 Liabilities: 13 15a Total unrestricted funds General funds Total charity funds Investments Cash at bank and in hand Tangible assets The funds of the charity: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Net current assets Total net assets Debtors Endowment fund Unrestricted funds Designated funds Restricted funds |
Endowment £ 310,328 106,525 |
Restricted £ - - |
Unrestricted £ 14,561 179,368 |
2021 £ 324,889 285,893 |
Endowment £ 314,307 85,865 |
Restricted £ - - |
Unrestricted £ 19,413 168,560 |
2020 £ 333,720 254,425 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 416,853 - - |
- - 17,648 |
193,929 30,223 415,769 |
610,782 30,223 433,417 |
400,172 - - |
- - 44,970 |
187,973 45,531 407,485 |
588,145 45,531 452,455 |
|
| - - |
17,648 - |
445,992 79,088 |
463,640 79,088 |
- - |
44,970 - |
453,016 75,638 |
497,986 75,638 |
|
| - | 17,648 | 366,904 | 384,552 | - | 44,970 | 377,378 | 422,348 | |
| 416,853 | 17,648 | 560,833 | 995,334 | 400,172 | 44,970 | 565,351 | 1,010,493 | |
| 416,853 - - - |
- 17,648 - - |
- - 175,000 385,833 |
416,853 17,648 175,000 385,833 |
400,172 - - - |
- 44,970 - - |
- - 150,000 415,351 |
400,172 44,970 150,000 415,351 |
|
| - | - | 560,833 | 560,833 | - | - | 565,351 | 565,351 | |
| 416,853 | 17,648 | 560,833 | 995,334 | 400,172 | 44,970 | 565,351 | 1,010,493 |
Approved by the trustees on 6 July 2021 and signed on their behalf by
Rachel Sexton Treasurer
Peter Binning Chair of the JUSTICE Board
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JUSTICE
Statement of cash flows
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Reconciliation of net income / (expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities
| Net income / (expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the statement of financial activities) Depreciation charges (Gains)/losses on investments Dividends, interest and rent from investments (Increase)/decrease in debtors Increase/(decrease) in creditors Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash flows from operating activities Net cash provided by investing activities Net cash provided by operating activities Cash flows from investing activities: Dividends, interest and rents from investments Purchase of fixed assets |
£ £ (22,551) 8,805 (5,292) 3,513 (19,038) 452,455 433,417 2021 |
£ £ (22,551) 8,805 (5,292) 3,513 (19,038) 452,455 433,417 2021 |
2021 £ (15,159) 14,123 (31,468) (8,805) 15,308 3,450 |
2020 £ 8,514 15,711 23,634 (7,835) 14,759 14,390 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (22,551) | 69,173 | |||
| (19,038) 452,455 |
||||
| 433,417 |
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JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
1 Accounting policies
a) Statutory information
JUSTICE is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in United Kingdom.
The registered office address is 59 Carter Lane, London, EC4V 5AQ
b) Basis of preparation
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.
Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.
In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements, for example in respect of significant accounting estimates. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. Any significant estimates and judgements affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.
c) Public benefit entity
The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.
d) Going concern
- The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern.
The trustees do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.
e) Income
Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably. Tax recoverable under the gift aid scheme is recognised when receivable to align with the original donation.
Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.
For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s) to the charity that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor’s intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is a treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.
Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.
Income received for seminars and other similar events, including income received to sponsor events, is recognised in the statement of financial activities in the period the event takes place.
Subscription income from members is credited to the statement of financial activities when received.
Rental income is credited to the statement of financial activities in the period in which it is related to.
44
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
1 Accounting policies (continued)
-
f) Donations of gifts, services and facilities
-
Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised so refer to the trustees’ annual report for more information about their contribution.
On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.
g) Interest receivable
Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.
h) Fund accounting
Endowment funds are amounts raised through an appeal for charitable purposes which may be retained to produce an income for the charity or may be spent on premises, equipment and development at the discretion of the Executive Board.
Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.
Unrestricted funds are donations and other income received or generated for the charitable purposes.
i) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT
-
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:
-
Costs of raising funds relate to the costs incurred by the charitable company in inducing third parties to make voluntary contributions to it, as well as the cost of any activities with a fundraising purpose
-
Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of Research and education and Membership undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs
-
Other expenditure represents those items not falling into any other heading
Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.
45
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
- 1 Accounting policies (continued)
j) Allocation of support costs
- Expenditure is allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.
Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure.
Where such information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is also provided to potential donors, activity costs are apportioned between fundraising and charitable activities on the basis of area of literature occupied by each activity.
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| | Research and education | 64% | 64% |
| | Membership | 9% | 9% |
| | Support costs | 11% | 10% |
| | Governance costs | 3% | 3% |
| | Fundraising | 13% | 14% |
Support and governance costs are re-allocated to each of the activities on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity
-
Research and education
-
Membership
-
Fundraising
75% 10% 15%
Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.
Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.
k) Tangible fixed assets
Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £500. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.
Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:
-
Computer equipment - 25% straight line
-
Database - 20% straight line Freehold buildings - 1% straight line
The useful economic life of the freehold buildings is in excess of 50 years but as the value of the building is not impaired below its carrying amount, no adjustments have been made. The value of land is not known and it is not separately accounted for; instead, the freehold property, including land, is depreciated over 100 years.
l) Listed investments
Investments are a form of basic financial instrument and are initially recognised at their transaction value and subsequently measured at their fair value as at the balance sheet date using the closing quoted market price. Any change in fair value will be recognised in the statement of financial activities. Investment gains and losses, whether realised or unrealised, are combined and shown in the heading “Net gains/(losses) on investments” in the statement of financial activities. The charity does not acquire put options, derivatives or other complex financial instruments.
46
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
1 Accounting policies (continued)
m) Debtors
Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.
- n) Cash at bank and in hand
Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.
o) Creditors and provisions
Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.
p) Financial instruments
The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
47
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
2 Donations and legacies
| Donations and legacies | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends JUSTICE60 Donations General Donations Legacies Donated services |
Restricted £ - - - - - |
Unrestricted £ 145,141 36,867 286,000 - 7,918 |
2021 Total £ 145,141 36,867 286,000 - 7,918 |
Restricted £ 10,000 - - - - |
2020 Unrestricted Total £ £ 154,221 164,221 36,067 36,067 307,700 307,700 1,000 1,000 5,968 5,968 504,956 514,956 |
| - | 475,926 | 475,926 | 10,000 |
-
A number of Law Firms support the work of JUSTICE. This financial year we have recognised donated services from:
-
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who provided Human Resources support.
-
Linklaters LLP who provided support relating to our tenancy agreement.
-
Dechert LLP who provided governance advice relating to the hosting of a virtual AGM and election of our new Chair.
48
3 Income from charitable activities
| Income from charitable activities | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Dulverton Trust Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust The Jolanta and Max Neufeld Charitable Trust Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity The Revilo Trust Simmons and Simmons Charitable Foundation Standard Life Foundation Herbert Smith Freehills LLP City of London Corporation The Leri Charitable Trust Legal Education Foundation: 21st Century Access to Justice Administrative Justice Council The Barrow Cadbury Trust The Evan Cornish Foundation The Blagrave Trust Existing / previous funders Education: Other Laura Kinsella Foundation Total income from charitable activities Conferences Publications Paul Hamlyn Foundation The Worshipful Company of Arbitrators Society of the Holy Child Jesus Ministry of Justice Trust and Foundations The Dawes Trust The HSM Charitable Trust The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust Persula Foundation Treebeard Trust The Stewarts Foundation Therium Access Morrison & Foerster (UK) LLP Howard Kennedy LLP Allen and Overy Foundation New funders Existing / previous funders Jenner & Block LLP Travers Smith Sub-total for membership Membership Trust for London Other: University of Westminster Montfort Sub-total for research and education 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust Blackrock New funders |
Restricted £ - 14,000 7,500 - - - - 15,000 10,000 - - - - - 15,000 13,057 36,200 2,000 - 5,966 2,500 - - 20,000 5,000 - - 20,000 - - - - - 7,452 - - - 3,113 - - |
Unrestricted £ 25,000 - - 10,000 - 1,000 - - - - - 6,000 - 15,000 - - - - 5,000 - - 500 10,000 - - 10,000 5,000 - - - - - - - 10,000 5,000 3,000 0 17,015 180 - |
2021 Total £ 25,000 14,000 7,500 10,000 - 1,000 - 15,000 10,000 - - 6,000 - 15,000 15,000 13,057 36,200 2,000 5,000 5,966 2,500 500 10,000 20,000 5,000 10,000 5,000 20,000 - - - - - 7,452 10,000 5,000 3,000 3,113 17,015 180 - |
Restricted £ - 10,000 15,000 - - - 22,822 24,375 10,000 - - - 45,000 15,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - 20,000 3,151 9,800 7,000 10,000 - - - - - - - - - |
2020 Unrestricted Total £ £ 25,000 25,000 - 10,000 - 15,000 7,500 7,500 600 600 1,000 1,000 - 22,822 - 24,375 - 10,000 - - - - 6,000 6,000 - 45,000 15,000 15,000 - 15,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10,000 10,000 5,000 5,000 - 20,000 - 3,151 - 9,800 - 7,000 - 10,000 5,000 5,000 - - - - - - - - - - 18,565 18,565 747 747 2,181 2,181 96,593 288,741 98,282 98,282 98,282 98,282 194,875 387,023 |
| 176,788 - |
122,695 105,348 |
299,483 105,348 |
192,148 - |
||
| - | 105,348 | 105,348 | - | ||
| 176,788 | 228,043 | 404,831 | 192,148 |
49
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
4a Analysis of expenditure
Charitable activities
| Staff costs (Note 6) Premises costs Office costs Publications/printing/design Training, seminars and conferences Fundraising costs Professional fees Depreciation Other costs Support costs Governance costs Total expenditure 2021 Total expenditure 2020 |
Cost of raising funds £ 67,299 1,641 9,286 - - 3,556 - 1,836 - 83,618 10,162 4,443 98,223 111,788 |
Research & education £ 636,423 8,078 67,737 - - - - 9,039 - 721,277 50,809 22,213 794,299 756,303 |
Membership £ 46,591 1,136 6,429 - - 288 - 1,271 - 55,715 6,774 2,962 65,451 63,842 |
Governance costs £ 15,530 379 2,143 - - - 8,142 424 3,000 29,618 - (29,618) - - |
Support costs £ 56,945 1,388 7,858 - - - - 1,554 - 67,745 (67,745) - - - |
2021 Total 2020 Total £ £ 822,788 754,855 12,622 27,737 93,453 85,106 - 3,728 - 12,797 3,844 23,918 8,142 7,980 14,124 15,711 3,000 101 957,973 931,933 - - - - 957,973 - 931,933 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
4b Analysis of expenditure (prior year)
| Analysis of expenditure (prior year) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff costs (Note 6) Premises costs Office costs Publications/printing/design Training, seminars and conferences Fundraising costs Professional fees Depreciation Other costs Support costs Governance costs Total expenditure 2020 |
Cost of raising funds £ 62,256 3,883 9,110 - - 20,740 - 2,200 - 98,189 9,404 4,195 111,788 |
Research & education Membership £ £ 594,768 40,022 17,752 2,496 61,606 5,931 127 3,601 12,797 - - 3,178 - - 10,055 1,414 - - 697,105 56,642 40,937 4,979 18,261 2,221 756,303 63,842 Charitable activities |
Governance costs £ 13,341 832 1,952 - - - 7,980 471 101 24,677 - (24,677) - |
Support costs 2020 Total £ £ 44,468 754,855 2,774 27,737 6,507 85,106 - 3,728 - 12,797 - 23,918 - 7,980 1,571 15,711 - 101 55,320 931,933 (55,320) - - - - 931,933 |
| Research & education £ 594,768 17,752 61,606 127 12,797 - - 10,055 - 697,105 40,937 18,261 756,303 |
51
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
- 5 Net income / (expenditure) for the year
This is stated after charging / crediting:
| This is stated after charging / crediting: | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | |
| £ | £ | |
| Depreciation charge for the year | 14,123 | 15,711 |
| Auditor's remuneration (excluding VAT): | ||
| Audit services | 6,785 | 6,650 |
- 6 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel
Staff costs were as follows:
| Redundancy and termination costs Staff recruitment Salaries and wages Social security costs Salary Admin (re: childcare vouchers) Staff training/practising certificate Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes Consultancy |
2021 2020 £ £ 684,117 623,098 65,706 61,239 65,300 58,009 - 2,433 1,189 93 4,754 5,071 - 4,316 1,722 595 822,788 754,855 |
|---|---|
The following number of employees received employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs and employer's national insurance) during the year between:
| 2021 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | No. | ||
| £60,000 | - £69,999 | 2 | 1 |
| £80,000 | - £89,999 | - | 1 |
| £90,000 | - £99,999 | 1 | - |
The total employee benefits including pension contributions and employer's national insurance of the key management personnel were £343,028 (2020: £308,517).
The charity Board members were not paid nor received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2020: £nil). No Board member received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2020: £nil).
52
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
7 Staff numbers
The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:
| Raising funds Research and education Membership Support Governance |
2021 Employed No. 2.5 12.8 1.7 2.4 0.6 |
2021 FTE No. 2.1 10.4 1.4 1.9 0.5 |
2020 2020 Employed FTE No. No. 2.9 2.4 12.8 10.8 1.6 1.4 2.1 1.8 0.6 0.5 20.0 16.9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20.0 | 16.3 |
8 Related party transactions
Aggregate donations from related parties were £27,270 (2020: £31,661). There are no other related party transactions to disclose for either year.
9 Taxation
The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.
10 Tangible fixed assets
| At the start of the year At the end of the year At the end of the year Depreciation Disposals Cost or valuation Net book value At the start of the year Charge for the year At the start of the year Additions in year Disposals At the end of the year |
Freehold property £ 397,862 - - |
Database £ 25,180 - - |
IT Equipment £ 52,575 5,292 (7,094) |
Total £ 475,617 5,292 (7,094) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 397,862 | 25,180 | 50,773 | 473,815 | |
| 83,555 3,979 - |
25,180 - - |
33,162 10,144 (7,094) |
141,897 14,123 (7,094) |
|
| 87,534 | 25,180 | 36,212 | 148,926 | |
| 310,328 | - | 14,561 | 324,889 | |
| 314,307 | - | 19,413 | 333,720 |
All of the above assets are used for charitable purposes.
53
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
| 11 12 13 CCLA COIF Fixed Interest Fund Charishare Common Investment Fund Debtors Accruals Trade creditors Taxation and social security Pension contributions payable Fair value at the start of the year Additions at cost Fair value at the end of the year Listed investments Net gain / (loss) on change in fair value Investments representing over 5% by value of the portfolio comprise: Rent received in advance UK Common investment funds Investments comprise: Prepayments Accrued income Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Other debtors |
2021 £ 254,425 - 31,468 |
2020 £ 278,059 - (23,634) |
|---|---|---|
| 285,893 | 254,425 | |
| 285,893 | 254,425 | |
| 2021 £ 285,893 |
2020 £ 254,425 |
|
| 285,893 | 254,425 | |
| 2021 £ 117,573 168,320 |
2020 £ 119,253 135,172 |
|
| 2021 £ 241 17,561 12,421 |
2020 £ 3,264 16,546 25,721 |
|
| 30,223 | 45,531 | |
| 2021 £ 10,173 7,250 19,225 6,661 35,779 |
2020 £ 10,213 14,082 17,083 5,863 28,397 |
|
| 79,088 | 75,638 |
54
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
14a Movements in funds (current year)
| Restricted funds: Total restricted funds General funds Challenging school exclusions Working Party Prosecuting Sexual Offences Working Party Solving Housing Disputes Working Party Tackling Racial Injustice Working Party Unrestricted funds: Endowment fund Defending the rule of law, access to justice and human rights Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families Working Party Therium Access grant Designated fund - Working Parties Total funds Reforming Benefits Decision-Making Working Party Capital Campaign Designated funds - Administrative Justice Council Intern funding Adminstrative Justice Council Intern Total designated funds Immigration and Asylum Adminstrative Justice Council Total unrestricted funds |
At 1 April 2020 £ 400,172 |
Income & gains £ 20,660 |
Expenditure & losses £ (3,979) |
Transfers £ - |
At 31 March 2021 £ 416,853 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,045 - 5,000 - - 3,751 0 - - - - 174 30,000 |
50,410 2,703 - 2,500 5,966 10,000 2,000 36,200 27,452 13,057 5,000 21,500 - |
(70,790) (2,420) - (5,049) (15,330) (8,835) (28,140) (3,286) (30,606) (1,044) (9,210) (46,634) (30,000) |
14,335 - 2,549 - - 26,140 4,210 - - |
- 283 5,000 - (9,364) 4,916 - 32,914 (3,154) 12,013 - (24,960) - |
|
| 44,970 | 176,788 | (251,344) | 47,234 | 17,648 | |
| - 150,000 |
- - |
- (75,764) |
25,000 75,764 |
25,000 150,000 |
|
| 150,000 415,351 |
- 745,366 |
(75,764) (626,886) |
100,764 (147,998) |
175,000 385,833 |
|
| 565,351 | 745,366 | (702,650) | (47,234) | 560,833 | |
| 1,010,493 | 942,814 | (957,973) | - | 995,334 |
The narrative to explain the purpose of each fund is given at the foot of the note below.
55
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
14b Movements in funds (prior year)
| Restricted funds: Total restricted funds General funds Mental Health and Fair Trial Unrestricted funds: Total unrestricted funds Strengthening 21st Century Access to Justice Capital Campaign Immigration and Asylum Adminstrative Justice Council Tackling Racial Injustice Working Party Solving Housing Disputes Working Party Therium Access grant Designated fund - Working Parties Total funds Longford Trust Internship Challenging School exclusions Working When things go wrong Working Party Endowment fund |
At 2 April 2019 £ 417,547 |
Income & gains £ - |
Expenditure & losses £ (17,375) |
Transfers £ - |
At 31 March 2020 £ 400,172 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,702 (544) 5,000 - 11,178 - 3,000 6,000 - 0 - |
- 22,822 - 10,000 59,375 10,000 7,000 9,800 3,151 35,000 45,000 |
(6,702) (22,278) - (6,249) (64,508) (10,000) (10,000) (15,800) (3,151) (34,826) (15,000) |
- - - - - - - - - - - |
- - 5,000 3,751 6,045 - - - - 174 30,000 |
|
| 31,336 | 202,148 | (188,514) | - | 44,970 | |
| 185,000 368,096 |
- 751,695 |
(140,703) (598,737) |
105,703 (105,703) |
150,000 415,351 |
|
| 553,096 | 751,695 | (739,440) | - | 565,351 | |
| 1,001,979 | 953,843 | (945,329) | - | 1,010,493 |
Purposes of endowment funds
Endowment funds are held as part of an expendable endowment fund and is comprised of the freehold property on Carter Lane and some listed investments.
Purposes of restricted funds
Restricted funds represent grants and donations given for specific purposes. Unspent funds at the year end are to be carried forward and spent on that specific project in a future period. The specific purposes are:
Administrative Justice Council
The Administrative Justice Council was set up to ensure that the administrative justice system is more accessible, fair and effective by improving administrative decision-making, simplifying appeals, complaints procedures and redress mechanisms and ensuring access to justice for some of the most vulnerable people in society. The Council is funded by the Ministry of Justice, The Legal Education Foundation and Trust for London, with any short-fall in funding made up by JUSTICE.
Administrative Justice Council Intern
Westminster University provided funding for an internship to support the AJC’s Health/advice partnership project.
JUSTICE Capital Campaign
These are funds raised to support the refurbishment of our offices at 59 Carter Lane.
Challenging school exclusions Working Party
Matrix Chambers supported our working party on Challenging School Exclusions with a £3,000 grant in 2018-19 and providing pro bono support. The Society of the Holy Jesus Child (£7,000 in 2019-20) and Peter Stebbings Memorial Charity (£2,500 2020-21) contributed towards implementation of its report’s recommendations. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds. This report examines the processes used to make and review a decision to exclude permanently a pupil in England and identifies serious weaknesses within the current system.
56
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
14 Movements in funds (continued)
Defending the rule of law, access to justice and human rights
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is supporting our work on this, with a three-year grant of £71,597, of which £5,966 has been received in this financial year. This grant has supported our work this year responding to proposed reforms of judicial review and the Human Rights Act. This fund is in deficit but future grant payments will be received to bring it back into a positive position.
Immigration and Asylum
The Leri Charitable Trust is supporting our work on Immigration and Asylum, ensuring the recommendations from our 2018 report are implemented.
Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families Working Party
This Improving Access to Justice for Separating Families working party commenced in January and is considering how access to justice can be improved for separating families in private family proceedings. The Eleanor Rathbone Charitable Trust has also contributed £2,000 towards this working party. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds.
Intern funding
The Dulverton Trust is providing a grant of £36,200 to support our internship and fellowship programme.
Reforming Benefits Decision-Making Working Party
BlackRock and Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP is supporting our working party on Reforming Benefits DecisionMaking. The report is due to be published in June and will make recommendations covering improvements to medical assessments, initial interviews and sanction processes; direct appeal to the tribunal but with mandatory review by DWP upon filing and better notification of the appeal process; a portal operated by DWP and which signposts to advice and support services; adoption of Understanding Courts recommendations for simple and accessible information on appealing; early legal help and co-location of legal advice with other support services. This fund is in deficit but future grant payments will be received to bring it back into a positive position.
Prosecuting Sexual Offences Working Party
The Dawes Trust is supporting the implementation work of our Prosecuting Sexual Offences working party. Our main method of advancing this work over the year was through our position on the Home Office Stakeholder Engagement Group for its Child Sexual Abuse strategy. We have continued to work towards a pilot conditional diversion scheme, liasing with NGO Safer Lives and the National Police Chief’s Council lead on child protection. The year has also seen roll out of improved measures for victims of sexual offences giving evidence to court, which we continue to support and monitor.
Solving Housing Disputes Working Party
Howard Kennedy LLP supported our working party on Solving Housing Disputes with a donation of £3,151 towards the costs of producing the report in 2019-20, as well as providing pro bono support to the working party. The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust provided us with a one-year grant of £5,000 for implementation in this financial year. The rest of the staff time on this Working Party was funded from JUSTICE’s designated funds. Implementation work has continued since the launch of thh report in March 2020, we have cemented collaboration with a number of groups who agree on the need for reform, including joining a Consumer Redress coalition, which has been meeting to consider the creation of an online portal to assist claimants in knowing how to seek help with their housing problems. We had been working on a mediation pilot, with the Property Chamber president, the idea of which was suspended while possession hearings were on hold and is now incorporated into the protocol for those proceedings. We are monitoring this carefully. We are also liaising with the Civil Procedure Rule Committee regarding improvements to pre-action protocols, which will be considered once the possession process is fully resumed.
57
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
14 Movements in funds (continued)
Tackling Racial Injustice: Children and the Youth Justice System
Barrow Cadbury Trust, The Blagrave Trust, and Travers Smith LLP are supporting our working party on Racial Disparity in Youth Justice. This working party, chaired by Sandra Paul, examined the causes of BAME disproportionality in the Youth Justice System (YJS) of England and Wales. It made practical recommendations with a view to reducing that disproportionality. In addition, it sought to ensure that children are not needlessly criminalised by improving the attitudes, processes and procedures in the YJS. This fund is in deficit but future grant payments will be received to bring it back into a positive position.
Therium Access grant
Therium Access contributed a one year grant towards salary costs to help JUSTICE continue their work reforming the United Kingdom’s justice system to increase access to justice and protect human rights for everyone.
Purposes of designated funds
Designated funds have been set aside by the Trustees to fund staff time spent on our Working Parties and the Administrative Justice Council.
15a Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)
| Tangible fixed assets Investments Net current assets Net assets at the end of the year |
Endowment £ 310,328 106,525 - |
Restricted £ - - 17,648 |
Designated £ - - 175,000 |
General unrestricted Total funds £ £ 14,561 324,889 179,368 285,893 191,904 384,552 385,833 995,334 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 416,853 | 17,648 | 175,000 |
15b Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)
| Tangible fixed assets Investments Net current assets Net assets at the end of the year |
Endowment £ 314,307 85,865 - |
Restricted £ - - 44,970 |
Designated £ - - 150,000 |
General unrestricted Total funds £ £ 19,413 333,720 168,560 254,425 227,378 422,348 415,351 1,010,493 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 400,172 | 44,970 | 150,000 |
58
JUSTICE
Notes to the financial statements
For the year ended 31 March 2021
16 Operating lease commitments payable as a lessee
The charity's total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases is as follows for each of the following periods
| Two to five years Less than one year |
2021 2020 £ £ 1,162 1,162 2,614 3,775 3,775 4,937 Equipment |
|---|---|
17 Operating lease commitments receivable as a lessor
Amounts receivable under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows for each of the following periods
| One to five years Less than one year |
2021 2020 £ £ 13,527 29,500 - 21,027 13,527 50,527 Property |
|---|---|
18 Legal status of the charity
The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.
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