Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 12: 12: Schedule 2 , page 120, line 3, after ““Tribunal”” insert ““by virtue of section 4(1)(d) or”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 13 and 14. This group of amendments makes minor and consequential changes to Schedules 2 and 3. Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 are technical amendments required as a result of changes made on Report in the way that members of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal fit into the new tribunals. Noble Lords will recall that amendments to Clauses 4 and 5 were made on Report to clarify which legally qualified members of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal are to be considered judges of the first-tier tribunal and which are to be considered judges of the upper tribunal. The Government’s intention, which is 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 your Lordship’s House, that visible distinction was lost. The amendments tabled on Report restored the distinction. Amendments Nos. 12 and 13 carry through those changes into Schedule 2. Amendment No. 14 remedies an omission from the Bill by providing for the oath of allegiance and the judicial oath to be taken by a person transferring into the new tribunal structure as a deputy judge of the upper tribunal. In order to cement their status as judges within the new system and the wider administrative justice system, it is intended that the oaths should be taken by all of the tribunal judiciary unless they have already done so as the result of holding an existing judicial office. Provisions in various parts of the Bill apply that requirement toall other judicial office holders. Paragraph 10 of Schedule 3 makes it clear that all deputy judges should take the oath. Amendment No. 14 completes the set by including those transferring in. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.