Commentary on Sections Schedule 14: Deployment of the judiciary Section 23: Permission to appeal from Upper Tribunal to Court of Session
416.Section 23 amends section 13 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 to allow a rule of court in Scotland that would reintroduce the “second-tier appeals test” for applications for permission to appeal from the Upper Tribunal to the Court of Session. This test requires that an application should demonstrate that the appeal would raise an “important point of principle or practice”, or “some other compelling reason for the court to hear the appeal”. The test applies in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland. The same test, provided for in a rule of court, was in place in Scotland before that rule was recently found to be ultra vires in the Court of Session’s decision in KP and MRK v. The Secretary of State for the Home Department. This section provides the statutory basis should such a rule be made again in Scotland.