Upper Tribunal
What is the Upper Tribunal?
The Upper Tribunal is a newly created court of record with jurisdiction throughout the United Kingdom. It has been established by Parliament under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. Its main functions are:
- To take over hearing appeals to the courts, the Social Security and Child Support Commissioners, and similar bodies from the decisions of local tribunals;
- To take over some of the supervisory powers of the Courts to deal with the actions of tribunals and of the government departments and other public authorities whose decisions may be appealed to tribunals; and
- To deal with enforcement of decisions, directions and orders made by tribunals.
What has changed?
- A major reorganisation of tribunals is taking place. Most tribunals are being combined into a single First–tier Tribunal with jurisdiction for some purposes throughout the United Kingdom. The Upper Tribunal has been created to deal with appeals from, and enforcement of, decisions of the First–tier Tribunal.
- The Commissioners, legal chairman and others who form the tribunals judiciary of the First–tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal are all now judges, with all new judges being appointed through the independent Judicial Appointments Commission.
- The opportunity provided by these changes is being used to reform and simplify the rules and procedures of the First–tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal.
Important Some of the rules, particularly about time limits, are different from the rules that applied to appeals to the Social Security Commissioners. See summary of the most important changes.
How will it work?
The Upper Tribunal is divided into chambers, and each chamber will start its work separately. This is because the new tribunal system is being introduced in stages.
The first chamber of the Upper Tribunal is the Administrative Appeals Chamber. This started work on 3 November 2008. Other chambers will follow included those for the tax and lands jurisdictions.
Other chambers may follow.
Who will the judges be?
All the decision-makers in the Upper Tribunal are judges or expert members sitting in a tribunal chaired by a judge. The judges are called Judges of the Upper Tribunal. They have taken the judicial oath, and their judicial independence is protected in the same way as court judges under the Constitutional Reform Act. They are specialists in the areas of law they handle. Some of the judges are full time appointments to the Upper Tribunal. For example, all Social Security Commissioners who continue in office have become Judges of the Upper Tribunal. But High Court judges, county court judges and other judges may also sit as full-time or part-time Judges of the Upper Tribunal.
Judges of the Upper Tribunal will normally decide cases individually. But they will have power to sit together on the more difficult appeals. And they will have power to sit with expert members in appropriate cases.
What is a court of record?
There are two practical points of importance. First, as the name suggests, a decision of the Upper Tribunal is a binding decision on the tribunals and public authorities below.
Second, and linked with this, it has powers both to enforce its own procedures and the procedures of the First–tier Tribunal.
What is Judicial review?
As part of its new powers, the Upper Tribunal has powers to conduct a judicial review of decisions or actions that cannot be appealed.
Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice, made a Direction on 29 October 2008 with effect from 3 November 2008 transferring two classes of action for judicial review from the High Court to the Upper Tribunal.
The two classes are:
- Appeals against decisions on review under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme
- Reviews of decisions of the First-tier Tribunal made under the new Tribunal Procedure Rules for the Tribunal where there is no right of appeal to the Upper Tribunal against the decisions.
In all cases, you must have permission from either the High Court or the Upper Tribunal to bring the action for judicial review. And you must show that you have a sufficient personal interest in the matter that you seek to challenge. You must also make any application without undue delay.
