Schedule 1 - Schedule A1 to the 1974 Act
Consumer Credit Bill
2:34 pm
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Benton. I have not been out to lunch today so my memory will not be impaired. I fully remember the issues that we discussed this morning.
I would like to go through my case with regard to amendment No. 48, and then perhaps we can explore it further. The only grounds on which the Lord Chancellor may remove a member of the appeals tribunal from office are incapacity or misbehaviour. The schedule does not change the current position of members of the existing panels. There are strict requirements for the qualifications of panel members, which are set out in paragraph 3 of schedule 1.
Once the Lord Chancellor has appointed the members, they are entitled to a full term of office unless they are incapacitated or misbehave. It is imperative that members of the tribunal are certain of their security of office. The schedule makes the reasons for removal very clear. It also makes it clear that tribunal members should hold and vacate office in accordance with the terms of their appointment, which will be determined by the Lord Chancellor.
Further to that, the selection of particular members of the tribunal to hear each appeal shall be carried out in accordance with arrangements made by the tribunal president. That enables the president to take into account members' availability and particular areas of expertise. Of course, the Lord Chancellor does not have to reappoint any member once their term of office comes to an end. That is the case that we wish to pursue with regard to this amendment. However, I am interested to hear whether the hon. Gentleman wishes to discuss it further.