Appointment of a new independent Chair of the Judicial Panel

The Judicial Panel has three divisions:  Disciplinary Division, Safeguarding Division and Registration Appeals Division. 

Members of the Judicial Panel are appointed (by the Chair) to form individual independent tribunals to hear cases under the LTA Disciplinary Code.  The code includes the Disciplinary Regulations, Safeguarding Regulations, Registration Appeal Regulations, Anti-Doping Regulations and Anti-Corruption Regulations.

Sir Gary is a solicitor, who had a practice of wide-ranging contentious work until 2000, when he was made a full-time judge.  He was appointed to a succession of judicial appointments in both the court and tribunal systems including Designated Civil Judge for Wales and Deputy Senior President of Tribunals, before being made a High Court Judge and a Judge of the Court of Appeal.  He has been appointed President of Welsh Tribunals from April 2023.

He retired as a Court of Appeal Judge in 2021 to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into corruption and governance in the British Virgin Islands, which he concluded last year.

His judicial work has included regulatory and disciplinary proceedings, and sport-orientated disputes in respect of a wide range of sports and subjects.  His experience also includes setting up and managing a variety of tribunals. He is a member of several sport dispute resolution panels including the FA Safeguarding Panel, and the Sports Resolutions Arbitrators’ Panel and National Safeguarding Panel regularly chairing hearings relating to a wide variety of sports.

The LTA would also like to place on record its thanks to the outgoing independent Chair of the Judicial Panel, Michael Sayers OBE, for his work on the panel over many years. He has provided valuable service to the sport in Great Britain and helped ensure cases heard under the LTA Disciplinary Code have been dealt with professionally, fairly and to a high standard.