#17269 - Tribunals - GDL English Legal System

Tribunals

• Tribunals are less formal and more specialised than ordinary courts.

• History

  • Tribunals were in existence as long ago as 1799, but the present system has really grown up since the Second World War.

• The Franks report

  • In 1957 the Franks Committee investigated the workings of tribunals.

    • It recommended that tribunal procedures should be marked by ‘openness, fairness and impartiality’.

  • Following the Committee’s report, the Council on Tribunals was established.

• Reforming the tribunals

  • Tribunals have recently been the subject of a major reform with the passing of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.

  • This piece of legislation followed a lengthy review of the tribunal service undertaken by the Government.

  • First, in 2000, the Government asked Sir Andrew Leggatt, a retired Lord Justice of Appeal, to look at the tribunal service.

    • The report of the Review, Tribunals for Users: One System, One Service, was published in 2001.

    • It identified some significant weaknesses in the current system.

    • In particular, it was concerned that the tribunals were not always accessible or user-friendly, they were not independent from the Ministries whose decisions were the subject of the tribunal work and the tribunal system lacked coherence.

    • The Review concluded that the tribunals had to be rationalised and modernised.

• Tribunals today

  • Following the Leggatt Review, the former Labour Government issued a White Paper, Transforming Public Services: Complaints, Redress and Tribunals (2004), containing significant plans to reform the tribunal system.

  • Many of these reforms are contained in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.

    • Part 1 of the Act creates a new, simplified statutory framework for tribunals.

  • The Act establishes two new, generic tribunals:

    • The First-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal.

    • The Upper Tribunal is primarily, but not exclusively, an appellate tribunal from the First-tier Tribunal.

  • The Act provides for the establishment of ‘chambers’ within the two tribunals so that the many jurisdictions that are being transferred into the new tribunals can be grouped together appropriately.

  • The tribunals’ judiciary is headed by a Senior President of Tribunals.

  • The Council on Tribunals was replaced by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council, but this was also abolished in 2011.

• Tribunal procedure

  • Under the 2007 Act, a new Tribunal Procedure Committee has been established with responsibility for tribunal rules of procedure.

• Composition

  • Most tribunals consist of a legally trained chairperson, and two lay people who have some particular expertise in the relevant subject area.

  • Status Tribunals are generally regarded as inferior to the ordinary...