Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 1: 1: Clause 1 , page 1, line 9, leave out ““the office of Senior President of Tribunals”” and insert ““an office listed in subsection (7B)”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 2 to 4. Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are designed to ensure that the guarantee of judicial independence set out in Clause 1 includes all the tribunals which are administered by the Lord Chancellor. As it currently stands, the guarantee in the Bill does not cover the employment tribunals in Scotland, nor does it cover the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel adjudicators appointed by Scottish Ministers under Section 5 of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1995. These are the only tribunals administered by the Lord Chancellor that fall outside Schedule 14 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. A further difficulty is that members of employment tribunals are not within Schedule 14 to the 2005 Act and so do not come within the guarantee in Clause 1 if they are not chairmen. These would be unfortunate anomalies if they were not remedied, and Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 do so. Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 amend Clauses 4 and 5 in order to clarify which legally qualified members of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal are to be considered judges of a first tier tribunal and which are to be considered judges of the upper tribunal. As presently drafted, the Bill provides that all legally qualified members should be considered judges of the upper tribunal. The Government’s intention, which was reflected in the Bill that we published in draft last July, is that only the president or deputy president or a senior immigration judge would sit as a judge of the upper tribunal. All other AIT judges are to be part of the first tier tribunal only. In the process of redrafting the Bill for introduction in Lordships’ House, that visible distinction was lost, although the practical effect would have been no different. These amendments revert to what was contained in the draft Bill and provide clarity on the face of the Bill in respect of the AIT and the mapping of judicial office holders into the appropriate tier. I should add that the amendments do not in any way change the position of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, which remains outside the first tier and upper tribunal and will remain so unless and until the Home Secretary agrees to its transfer into the new tribunal structure. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.