Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 - draft regulations: consultation

Annex C

Draft Regulations laid before the Scottish Parliament under section 79(2)(c) of the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014, for approval by resolution of the Scottish Parliament.

Draft Scottish Statutory Instruments

2025 No.

Tribunals and Inquiries

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber Police Appeals Cases and Upper Tribunal for Scotland (Composition) Regulations 2025

Made - - - - 2025

Coming into force - - 2025

The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 10, 38(1), 40(1) and 42(1) and (2) of the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014(^[25]) and all other powers enabling them to do so.

In accordance with section 11(2) of that Act, they have consulted the President of Tribunals.

In accordance with section 79(2)(c) of that Act, a draft of this instrument has been laid before and approved by resolution of the Scottish Parliament.

Citation, commencement and interpretation

33.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber Police Appeals Cases and Upper Tribunal for Scotland (Composition) Regulations 2025 and come into force on .

(2) In these Regulations—

“Chamber President” means the Chamber President of the First-tier Tribunal,

“Police Appeals Case” means proceedings before the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber, when exercising the functions allocated to it by regulation 2(1) of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Transfer of Functions of the Police Appeals Tribunal) Regulations(^[26]),

“First-tier Tribunal” means the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber, and

“Upper Tribunal” means the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.

Composition of First-tier Tribunal

34.—(1) The First-tier Tribunal, when convened at the start of proceedings to decide any matter in a Police Appeals Case, must consist of three legal members.

(2) When convened in terms of paragraph (1), one of the three legal members shall be chosen by the Chamber President to act as chairing member.

(3) Where a Chamber President has not been appointed or is not available, the choice of chairing member under paragraph (2) it to be made by the President of Tribunals

Composition of Upper Tribunal hearing appeals from First-tier Tribunal

35.—(1) The Upper Tribunal, when convened to decide an appeal to the Upper Tribunal in a Police Appeals Case decided by the First-tier Tribunal, must consist of—

(a) a member of the Upper Tribunal acting alone,

(b) two or three members of the Upper Tribunal,

(c) the Chamber President (except a temporary Chamber President), acting either alone or with no more than two members of the Upper Tribunal,

(d) the President of Tribunals, acting alone or with the Chamber President or with no more than two members of the Upper Tribunal, or

(e) the Lord President, acting alone or with the Chamber President or with no more than two members of the Upper Tribunal.

(2) The Chamber President referred to in paragraph (1) must not have had any involvement in the case prior to the appeal of the case to the Upper Tribunal.

(3) For the purposes of this regulation a member of the Upper Tribunal may be a legal member or a judicial member.

(4) The authority to determine the composition of the Upper Tribunal in respect of the alternative compositions referred to in paragraph (1) is delegated to the President of Tribunals, including—

(a) determining whether a member acting alone is to be a legal member or a judicial member,

(b) determining, in other cases, how many members are to be legal members and how many members are to be judicial members.

(5) In this regulation “judicial member” means a judge of the Court of Session.

Name

Authorised to sign by the Scottish Ministers

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

Date

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations make provision as to the composition of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland when dealing with Police Appeals cases in the General Regulatory Chamber. They also make provision as to the composition of the Upper Tribunal for Scotland when hearing Police Appeals cases from the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland General Regulatory Chamber.

These two tribunals were established by the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014. The First-tier Tribunal is divided into chambers according to the subject matter of the case, with the General Regulatory Chamber projected to deal with a range of diverse matters including Police Appeals. Members of the tribunals can be legal members or judicial members according to criteria set out in the Tribunals (Scotland) Act 2014 and regulations made under that Act. This instrument sets out which member or members may hear Police Appeals cases in the two tribunals.