Moving towards a general duty: An analysis of the duty to give reasons in UK administrative law
Luke Griffiths
Abstract
Currently UK law does not recognise the giving of reasons for administrative decisions as a core element of procedural fairness. This means that public bodies who are not under a specific legal duty to provide reasons can make decisions against applicants and not disclose their reasoning. Given that reason-giving is an accepted core value of rational administration and, in the words of Lord Justice Sedley, that ‘the decisions of administrative bodies can have a more immediate and profound impact on peoples lives than the decisions of courts’ the law can and should create a general legal duty to give reasons.