Clause 9
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill
1:00 pm
Henry Bellingham (Shadow Minister, Constitutional Affairs; North West Norfolk, Conservative)
It is a great pleasure for me to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr. Bercow. I look forward to this Committee being happy and constructive.
Clause 9(1) states:
“The First-tier Tribunal may review a decision made by it on a matter in a case, other than a decision that is an excluded decision for the purposes of section 11(1)”.
My amendment probes the powers of the first-tier tribunal to review its own decision. What is the scope of that power of review? Is it merely limited to points of law or does it go beyond that to evidential matters? If it is only a power of review, does it refer purely to formal matters or does it extend to something more substantial?
Presumably, the essence of the subsection is to ensure that the only cases that go to appeal will be those that really need to—the power is to enable minor errors to be corrected swiftly and informally. I recall from my time at the Bar that there are certain rules of procedure allowing magistrates courts, for example, to overturn their own decisions quickly within a certain period. I believe that there are other precedents as well. Will the Minister say what other precedents there are for the correction of minor mistakes without the need for a full appeal?
If the power is all part of trying to make the tribunal system more informal, user-friendly and generally more efficient, we would support it. However, I should be grateful if the Minister enlightened us further. These are probing amendments.