Clause 29
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill
2:45 pm
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
On the specific point about wasted costs, it would not be right for me to elaborate on what is meant by clause 29(5)(a), which states:
“In subsection (4) “wasted costs” means any costs incurred by a party...as a result of any improper, unreasonable or negligent act or omission on the part of any legal or other representative or any employee of such a representative”.
That is a fairly self-sufficient definition. Clause 29(2) states:
“The relevant Tribunal shall have full power”
totally
“to determine by whom and to what extent the costs are to be paid.”
There is sufficient ambit in the clause for the whole issue of conduct and costs to be aired. [Interruption.] Actually, I see now that this is a much more dire provision than I had thought; it is to direct that legal representatives who have wasted costs may pay, so perhaps the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk has also misread it. It is not likely to be a source of concern for the CBI, for instance, that lawyers should be required to pay costs. Perhaps we shall adjourn our consideration of mischievous actions by individuals until we get to the right part of the Bill.
My understanding is that clerks to the commissioners, for instance, are office holders, not employees, so they would not fall within any redundancy cover. There is the issue of the draft Coroners Bill, which would not abolish the existing system, but terminate existing coroners’ appointments. It would not abolish the role, so there is no statutory provision for compensation in that case; there would be no redundancies, in the sense that the role would not stop existing. Provisions in the Coroners Bill provide a mechanism to pay compensation, although no commitment has been made on the level of compensation or the underlying principles that might be used to establish that amount.
The proposed enabling legislation is similar in scope to that in the Taxes Management Act 1970, providing for compensation to clerks who lose office or emoluments as a result of boundary changes. I hope that the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk feels that that has clarified the position; if he does not, I shall write to him and set it out more fully.