Minister’s pledge on plans to create streamlined system for 40 tribunals

A MAJOR shake-up of Scotland’s tribunal system will not cause confusion, the minister responsible has said.

The Scottish Government has put forward plans to create an integrated structure for the 40-plus tribunals.

Two generic tribunals, a first tier and an upper tier, would be created. The upper tier would deal with appeals and existing tribunals would be transferred to the first tier, but with only four bodies moving over at first.

However, legal affairs minister Roseanna Cunningham said the tribunals would not lose any of their “distinctive characteristics”.

She added: “What is being proposed may seem like a massive change in the way tribunals operate. You might think it will adversely affect tribunal users and cause confusion about who will hear their particular case.

“The answer to that is quite the contrary. Tribunal users will still appear before the same tribunal members and decisions will still be made in accordance with the specific law governing their jurisdiction.”

She said: “We are proposing to introduce a new integrated structure for tribunals. We want to create a two-tiered structure. The first-tier tribunal would be for initial decision-making, and in most cases should be able to resolve satisfactorily the cases before it.

“This is not always possible, so we propose to create an upper-tier tribunal to hear appeals from the first tier.”

It is proposed that the first tribunals to transfer will be the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland, the Private Rented Housing Panel and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, but it will be possible for others to be transferred later.