Part 1: Tribunals and Inquiries Schedule 1 Section 3: The First-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal
52.Section 3 provides for the creation of a First-tier Tribunal and an Upper Tribunal, each consisting of judges (i.e. legally qualified members) and other members, and presided over by the Senior President of Tribunals. It is intended that the Upper Tribunal will primarily, but not exclusively, be an appellate tribunal from the First-tier Tribunal. The new tribunals are intended to be adaptable institutions, able to take on any existing or new tribunal jurisdictions. So in the future, when Parliament decides to create a new appeal right or jurisdiction, it will not have to create a new tribunal to administer it. The Upper Tribunal is a superior court of record, like the High Court and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.