How is the Index organised?

The Index is divided into two parts. Part 1 gives you a snapshot of how your administrative body is performing today.

Part 2 gives you a picture of your internal capacity to improve access to justice over time. We recognise that the core business of almost all administrative bodies is to deal with the daily intake of cases. Self-improvement is an important, but secondary goal. And administrative bodies have limited resources. This is why most of the changes arising out of the questions in Part 2 may take longer to implement.

Many questions in the Index call for a “yes” or “no” answer. However, where appropriate, we have included a scale to allow for gradations in the answers to some questions. Our aim is to try to reflect degrees of sophistication in the delivery of access to justice solutions.

We have also tried to avoid situations where an administrative body gets a low score on a question for reasons that are wholly beyond its control (such as where it lacks the statutory authority to do the thing the question is asking about, or broader government policy prohibits it). So some questions allow you to indicate that the question is not applicable.

The term “participants” in the questions refers to all the people who play a role in a proceeding. This includes the adjudicator, parties, their representatives, witnesses, interpreters and support persons.

Finally, for some questions we refer you to examples of how an administrative body has approached an issue by creating a policy or process. These are not our endorsements of a particular approach to an issue from a legal or policy perspective. They are simply meant to show you how administrative bodies have approached particular issues. The references are to the CCAT Tribunal Policy Repositories, and the links are at the end of this guide.