Tribunals (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 7 November 2013.

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Photo of Elaine Murray Elaine Murray Labour

The Scottish Parliament has, over the years, debated many bills that have attracted significant media and public attention. Bills have given the entitlement to permanent housing to the unintentionally homeless, banned smoking in public places and foxhunting and, more recently, addressed climate change and reformed Scotland’s police and fire and rescue services. However, I do not think that the Tribunals (Scotland) Bill is one of those that will get everyone talking. As members have already said, it is relatively uncontentious in its general principles, although there are concerns about aspects of the detail, which I will come on to.

Despite the lack of major areas of discord, I found the committee’s three evidence-gathering sessions surprisingly interesting, although I cannot promise that either of my speeches—unfortunately, there will be more than one today—will be interesting to the same extent. However, I certainly thank the witnesses for their contributions.

In many respects, the bill mirrors the provisions in the UK Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, which applies to tribunals in England, and was introduced for the same reasons: tribunals have evolved through separate pieces of founding legislation; there is no coherent system of review and appeal; and there is a variety of processes for appointments and opportunities for training. The bill therefore aims to bring coherence to the devolved tribunals in Scotland, and to provide opportunities to benefit from shared good practice and expertise.

However, because the UK Government is not minded to transfer into the Scottish tribunals system reserved tribunals such as employment tribunals, immigration tribunals or the social entitlement chamber, the bill will apply to only a small percentage of tribunals in Scotland, as Christine Grahame said. One of the witnesses said that it was 2 per cent and another said that it was 3 per cent, so I think that is somewhere between 2 and 3 per cent. The vast majority of tribunals will remain within the reserved tribunals system.

Jonathan Mitchell of the Faculty of Advocates advised us that the proposed system will apply to around 4,000 cases annually in Scotland, while 60,000 will go through the social entitlement chamber, 20,000 will go to employment tribunals in Scotland, and 10,000 will go to immigration and asylum tribunals. At the moment, therefore, we are dealing with a small number of cases.

One of the issues that was brought to the committee’s attention was the fact that, as the bill will apply not only to existing devolved tribunals but—if and when they transfer—to reserved tribunals and to any new tribunals that we might decide to set up in future, it should, as has been said already, contain some form of definition of the character of a tribunal. Lauren Wood of Citizens Advice Scotland suggested that the bill could incorporate

“principles to help to guide tribunals, as there are in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007”.—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 3 September 2013; c 3125.]

That might be a starting point for us to consider at stage 2 how the bill might be amended.

Jon Shaw of the Child Poverty Action Group felt that, despite similar provisions being contained in the Scottish Civil Justice Council and Criminal Legal Assistance Act 2013,

“Placing a principle in the bill ... would be a real improvement.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 3 September 2013; c 3216.]

Richard Henderson of the Law Society for Scotland advised that, when making reforms in different areas, such as civil courts and tribunals, we will have to ask ourselves about the linkage between them, and asking that question then prompts the question, “What is a tribunal?”

The argument for having principles that define the nature of a tribunal in the bill does not contradict the fact that the existing devolved tribunals have distinctive characteristics that the new system must preserve.