Transfer of Tribunal Functions (Lands Tribunal and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2009

As my honourable friend Henry Bellingham made clear in another place, we do not believe that the order is controversial, unlike—dare I say it?—some other aspects of the new tribunals system, but we are grateful that the Government saw reason on those matters, particularly in relation to the war pensions tribunal, and amended the whole new tribunals system. We are also grateful that the Lands Tribunal jurisdiction will be transferred to the Upper Tribunal—the upper tier—which we think is more appropriate. I have anecdotal evidence of that. Over lunch, I sat next to a Member of this House who was also my pupil master 30 years ago. He appeared frequently in those days in front of the Lands Tribunal and, when I told him of this order, his first and only question was which tier the tribunal would be in. He was grateful that it was to be in the upper tier, which he thought was appropriate. I think that we all agree on that. My honourable friend Henry Bellingham asked a number of questions in the other place, to most of which the Minister in the Commons gave a perfectly satisfactory reply. I have only one more question to add. If I heard the Minister correctly, he said that the name would remain the Lands Tribunal for the moment but might change later when there had been consultation. Does the tribunal need to change its name? I see exactly why the Government want to leave it as it is at the moment, as keeping the name might prevent any confusion as we move from the Lands Tribunal to the new arrangements. However, might it not be better to leave the name in place for longer than that? Having put that point to the Minister, I should say that we welcome the order and have no further objections to it.