Commentary on Sections Appeals Section 8: Legal aid
24.Section 8 amends section 103D(2) and 103D(3) of the 2002 Act to provide that subsection (3) applies where the Tribunal has been ordered to reconsider its decision on an appeal rather than where it has decided the appeal following reconsideration. This amendment allows representatives to be granted Community Legal Service funding by the appropriate court for work done in preparation for a reconsideration hearing that does not then proceed because the Home Office concedes the appeal, the appeal has to be treated as abandoned or where the appellant withdraws the appeal. The previous drafting of section 103D did not cater for the situation where an appeal is withdrawn, abandoned or conceded after reconsideration has been ordered but before it takes place, and the appellant’s representative has already carried out some preparatory work for the reconsideration.