Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 24: 24: Schedule 5 , page 131, line 21, at end insert— ““(e) provision for costs or expenses— (i) not to be allowed in respect of items of a description specified in Rules; (ii) not to be allowed in proceedings of a description so specified; (f) provision for other exceptions to either or both of subsections (1) and (2) of section 28.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 24 is a minor drafting amendment to clarify the provisions on costs in Clause 28, which grants the first-tier tribunal and the upper tribunal the power to order costs and expenses, which are the Scottish equivalent, in the same way as the courts, but makes this subject to tribunal procedure rules. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, who is not in his place at the moment, for his intervention on Clause 28 and Schedule 5 at Second Reading. The Child Poverty Action Group has also expressed concern that the clause might call into question the ability of the Tribunal Procedure Committee to makes rules that offered exemptions from the general power to award costs. The Government never intended the cost provisions to apply to all the functions exercised by the first-tier or upper tribunals. The provisions are intended to provide flexibility so that cost regimes can develop in tandem with their associated jurisdiction. I beg to move.