Barnard v National Dock Labour Board [1953] 2 QB 18

Key point

Public power granted to a body by statute cannot be delegated to another body, this is especially for the case of powers of a judicial nature

The Dock Workers (Employment and Regulation Scheme) 1947 granted the power to suspend a worker to the local dock labour board made up of equal number of representatives of workers and employers
The port manager suspended workers during a dispute without reference to the board
The board did not investigate, did not see the relevant report and made no decision on the matter
The suspended workers applied for judicial review

Found for the plaintiffs; the power had been granted to the board and could not be delegated to the port manager; at most all the board could is take recommendations from power manager.

‘While an administrative function can often be delegated, a judicial function rarely can be. No judicial tribunal can delegate its functions unless it is enabled to do so expressly or by necessary implication.’: p. 40
‘So far as the decision to suspend is concerned, as I see it, we are not asked to interfere with the decision of a statutory tribunal; we are asked to interfere with the position of a usurper. The port manager (if he will forgive my saying so) is a usurper, or, at any rate, is in the position of a usurper. I do not mean this unkindly, because I know that he acted in good faith on the authority of the board; nevertheless, he has assumed a mantle which was not his, but that of another. This is not a case of a tribunal which has a lawful jurisdiction and exercises it; it is a case of a man acting as a tribunal when he has no right to do so. These courts have always had jurisdiction to deal with such a case. ’: p. 42

Carltona v Commissioners of Works [1943] 2 All ER 560 is a major exception to this rule against unauthorised delegation: civil servants acting under the authority of a minister could exercise requisitioning powers vested in the minister personally