Part 1: Tribunals and Inquiries Schedule 3 Section 32: Power to provide for appeal to Upper Tribunal from tribunals in Wales
180.Where a jurisdiction is exercised by separate tribunals for England and Wales, difficulties could arise if there were different routes of onward appeal for the English and Welsh tribunals.
181.Section 32 therefore provides for an appeal to the Upper Tribunal from tribunals in Wales in two circumstances. Subsections (1) and (2) deal with a situation where the functions of a tribunal covering both England and Wales are transferred to the First-tier Tribunal in respect of England only. Subsection (3) deals with appeals from tribunals which already have a separate existence in Wales, and which are listed in Part 7 of Schedule 6.
182.Subsection (2) empowers the Lord Chancellor to provide for appeals from a decision of a tribunal in a Welsh case to be made to the Upper Tribunal instead of to a court. An example of how the power could be used is as follows. An existing tribunal operates in Wales under legislation that is the same as, or corresponds to, the legislation under which the tribunal operates in England. An appeal can be made to a court against decision made by the existing tribunal. The existing tribunal’s functions in England are transferred to the First-tier Tribunal under section 30. When the First-tier Tribunal makes a decision in England under the transferred function, any appeal has to be made not to that court but to the Upper Tribunal. Subsection (2) could be used to provide that when the existing tribunal makes a decision in Wales, an appeal against that decision has to be made not to that court but to the Upper Tribunal.
183.Subsection (3) empowers the Lord Chancellor to provide for an appeal against a decision of a scheduled tribunal to be made to the Upper Tribunal, where the decision is made by the tribunal in exercising a function in relation to Wales. The power enables an existing right to appeal from the tribunal to a court to be converted into a right to appeal from the tribunal to the Upper Tribunal.