Clause 15
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill
1:15 pm
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
Essentially, the point of enabling the judiciary to transfer cases from the normal judicial review jurisdiction into the upper tribunal is to harness the expertise that is likely to be available in that forum on the special kinds of business that the tribunal system takes care of. The provisions do not remove or resist judicial review, but make it possible for selected judicial reviews that would normally be heard before the High Court to be dealt with in the upper tribunal. The powers will be the same as those of judicial review, so the fact that it is in the tribunal system does not mean that there will not be the power to grant mandatory orders, prohibition, quashing orders, declarations or injunctions. The hon. Gentleman will recall from Second Reading that the range of judiciary available to deal with quasi-judicial reviews in the upper tribunal is restricted to the High Court and those approved by the chief justices.
We expect the power to be used comparatively rarely—dozens of times at most and certainly not in large numbers—and that its use is likely to be confined to technical situations that would be better dealt with by technically expert people.