Notice

Application process to become an approved arbitration body

Updated 24 March 2022

Approval process objectives

• Arbitrators are well qualified and experienced enough to give confidence in their awards.
• There is enough capacity to manage expected cases.
• Arbitration bodies smoothly manage an online documents based process.
• Arbitration bodies have experience of dealing with small as well as large claims.
• Arbitration is affordable (SMEs or liquidity constrained companies).
• Assurance that the arbitrators are independent and impartial.
• Arbitrations awards are delivered quickly.
• The arbitration process and appeals are well governed.
• Arbitration awards are of a high quality (and help to set market expectation)

Questions asked as part of the approval process

The potential arbitration board will need to provide the following information:

Company details

• Name of organisation
• Address
• Details of main contact – Name, email, phone number and job title
• How long has your organisation been operating?
• Mission and vision statement
• Do you have a policy on diversity?

Arbitrators

• How many arbitrators listed with your organisation would you consider to be potentially suitable for this scheme?
• What criteria would you be applying to select arbitrators?
• What will your process be for appointing arbitrators to cases?
• What fee structure are you proposing, for example a fixed fee or sliding scale, and the fee level?
• Specifically, what are you proposing to do to make this scheme affordable for SMEs? 

Internal organisation

• Do you consider that you will have enough administrative capacity within your organisation to administer this scheme successfully? Please provide details of administrative support.
• What contingency plan does your organisation have in place should an arbitrator be unable to continue working on a case under this scheme?
• Please specify the agreements which your arbitrators are already bound by or will be expected to agree to, for example on disclosure of interests
• Will arbitrators on your list be required to adhere to a set of institutional procedural rules and if so, do these rules adhere to standard arbitration practice?
• What is your complaints process?
• Do your arbitrators have indemnity insurance? 
• Are you considering sub-contracting any of the functions of an approved body to another body? If so, how do you propose to ensure that this body will be suitable to carry out those functions and will do so to an appropriate standard?
• Does your organisation have experience of overseeing small to large (over £500,000) arbitration cases online?
• Please explain how you will ensure data is protected and stored in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). If you intend to contract other parties, please explain how you will ensure they are compliant with data protection legislation.

Sifting criteria

Question / objective	High	Low
What criteria would you be applying to select arbitrators?	Clearly demonstrated independent and impartial process for allocating arbitrators Good evidence of matching skills and experience to the case Good evidence of managing capacity in the flow of the process	Not a clear process of allocating arbitrators Opportunity to influence allocation based on preference so not impartial Process too much dependent on arbitrator availability vs actively encouraging arbitrators to join the scheme
What criteria would you be applying to allocating cases to arbitrators?	A well designed proforma that clearly sets out the issues in dispute to facilitate a quick process of allocation and case management Allocating cases to arbitrators with the qualifications required as relevant to the case e.g financial accounting, legal knowledge Considering independence of arbitrators from parties to the case	Ad hoc allocation of cases Too much concentration on arbitrator availability rather than suitability of arbitrator Not doing due diligence on arbitrators to assess independence
What experience does your company have of administering large scale Arbitration schemes - especially statutory ones with a sliding scale of claim amounts?	Experience of dealing with a range of business models and business sizes – given considerations of Data Protection, we ask bodies to provide examples of the types of companies and sectors they have worked with. Experience of dealing with small claims to disputes in excess of £500,000 – given confidentiality and Data Protection issues, we ask bodies to provide examples of the types of claims dealt with and an example of an award.	Particular speciality in one area only and with a particular business model and size of business Only used to dealing with a particular sized claim whether it’s a small claim or a larger one.
Please demonstrate experience of delivering a paper based online arbitration scheme	Experience of online/paper based arbitration – this could be an example of a previous/current scheme.	No experience of paper based/online arbitration service or willingness to transition to an online scheme.
How would you deal with complaints from parties in arbitration cases?	Evidence of having a complaints system in place and how these are dealt with. We are looking for a process that deals with complaints swiftly and fairly.	No process in place.
How would you deal with an arbitrator who dies, resigns or is incapacitated while assigned to an arbitration case?	Evidence of having robust replacement systems in place to replace arbitrators during the course of a case if a problem arises Evidence of a secondary process available if no replacement arbitrators are available within the organisation	Ad hoc allocation of cases Too much concentration on arbitrator availability rather than suitability of arbitrator Not doing due diligence on arbitrators to assess independence