Commentary on Sections Specific provision for Wales and for London Section 81: Adjudicators
213.The European Convention on Human Rights (as incorporated in domestic law by the Human Rights Act 1998) requires adjudication of a penalty charge to be by an independent and impartial tribunal. Section 81 enables the Lord Chancellor to make regulations to provide for the appointment of adjudicators to hear appeals by persons who are or may be liable to pay penalty charges for traffic contraventions. It specifies the legal qualifications of adjudicators and limits the grounds for removal from office of an adjudicator. The regulations will provide for the consent of the Lord Chancellor to be obtained prior to the appointment, re-appointment or removal from office of an adjudicator. Enforcement authorities will be responsible for providing accommodation and administrative support for adjudicators, and setting their terms of work and for their remuneration. Adjudicators will be required by regulations to make an annual report to the enforcement authorities and those authorities in turn will be required to make an annual report to the appropriate national authority on the discharge by the adjudicators of their functions.
214.The regulations relating to the appointment of adjudicators may make transitional provisions treating adjudicators already appointed for the purpose of hearing appeals, in the case of parking under section 73 of the Road Traffic Act 1991 or in the case of bus lane contraventions under section 144 of the Transport Act 2000, as if they had been appointed under the Act. Such regulations may also continue in force existing arrangements for their accommodation, administrative support and fees. In practice this will mean adjudication continuing to be undertaken by bodies corresponding to the London Parking and Traffic Appeals Service, in London, and the National Parking Adjudication Service, outside London. Both were originally constituted as adjudication bodies for the purpose of decriminalised parking enforcement.