Dear Judicial Office for England and Wales,
1. How many times in the last 18 months (plus dates of those times) has the Judicial Office unnecessarily wasted tax payers’ money?
2 What was the final cost for the Judicial Office for recruiting the legal services of the Government Legal Department (GLD)?

Background:
In December 2020, Chamber President Judge Mrs Justice Farbey DBE was either too lazy or indifferent to send a message to Dudley Jones refusing him permission to publish online a routine admin letter she’d sent him in April 2020. She couldn’t even be bothered to ask her PA, Elizabeth Portas to do that. Instead, she applied to the Judicial Office to be her secretarial assistant, and convey her message.

The JO readily agreed, and contacted the Government Legal Department to carry Judge Farbey’s message to Dudley Jones on their behalf. The GLD duly instructed Chris Dyton, a senior lawyer to act as Judge Farbey’s messenger boy.

The Judicial Office have to pay for the services of the GLD – like every other Government Department that uses the GLD services. I have a source in a Government Department who has access to sensitive information. I've been informed that because Mr Dyton exceeded his brief, and threatened Mr Jones with potential ‘Contempt of Court charges’ should he think of defying Judge Farbey’s refusal to grant permission to publish the letter, the cost of GLD fees escalated dramatically. Adding to the cost has been Mr Dyton’s decision to collude with Judge Farbey DBE in breaching Mr Jones’ Data Privacy rights.

What added to the cost again, was that Mel Nebranjani, GLD director of Litigation, in attempting to defend Dyton, also breached Mr Jones’ Data Privacy rights. Finally, the Treasury Solicitor, in an ill-judged effort to defend her colleagues, behaved in a grossly acting way, and is now facing investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, the Ombudsman.

At present, the cost of the GLD’s fees for the Judicial Office, I’ve been told, is well over £2,000 – just for acting as Judge Farbey’s secretarial assistant/messenger boy. This money will, of course, ultimately be paid by the tax payer.

Why couldn’t the JO simply instruct a junior clerk to convey the message? And – if they felt it was absolutely necessary to have a lawyer convey the message - why not use one of their own? The JO has 15 lawyers on their staff roll: any one of them could have performed this simple task, and there then would have been no additional cost to the tax payer!

What was the final bill for the GLD services? What was the real reason for the Judicial Office deciding to seek their help? And why didn’t the GLD point out to Chris Dyton that he had behaved wrongly – ditto Judge Farbey.

How many times in the last 18 months have there been occasions when the Judicial Office (with its 15 lawyers) has needlessly wasted tax payer’s money? After all, the total GLD last year for the JO was over £362,000 (revealed in an FOI Response) . Does the JO never employ their own lawyers?

Yours faithfully,

Dudley Jones

Dear Judicial Office for England and Wales,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Judicial Office for England and Wales's handling of my FOI request 'How many times in the last 18 months has the Judicial Office unnecessarily wasted tax payers' money'.

Your response to this question was: The MoJ considers the first part of your request to be vexatious and, in accordance with section 14(1) of the FOIA, we will not be taking it any further.

I am sure the Ministry of Justice does regard this question as 'vexing'. Understandably they want to keep hidden their blatant disregard for a huge waste of tax payers' money - an entirely unnecessary waste because if they really felt it necessary to recruit a senior GLD lawyer to act as a judge's messenger boy, they had 15 of their own qualified lawyers to call upon which would not have cost them (or rather the tax payer) a penny.

I think people need to be aware of the Judicial Office's profligate waste of money, especially at a time when the country is faced by huge economic problems, massive rises in energy bills, and soaring inflation.
if a review maintains they want to avoid transparency at all cost, I will send this request and correspondence to Stop UK lies and Corruption, and OpenDemocracy and make it widely available online.

Joe Public will feel a response that hides the truth is 'vexatious'. The JO seems to be a shadowy body that regards themselves as unaccountable

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...

Yours faithfully,

Dudley Jones