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Meeting of the Parliament 07 November 2013

07 Nov 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Tribunals (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Keir, Colin SNP Edinburgh Western Watch on SPTV

I am not terribly sure that I am delighted to be speaking here today, but it is my last hurrah as a member of the Justice Committee. There is an element of déjà vu about the debate. After the previous debate on the subject, my late colleague David McLetchie said to me on the way out of the chamber, “Colin, with all your wittering on about the citizens advice bureaux you’ve given me an extra two minutes for my summing up.” However, he still did not manage to fill his allocation of time, such was the agreement among members on the subject. I miss David and his humour—many of us do.

However, this debate is somewhat different. A number of eminent people gave the Justice Committee evidence, verbally or in writing, on the bill . The issues raised were quite fascinating, so I agree with Elaine Murray that aspects of the bill are interesting.

The tribunals are designed to provide an easier and less expensive method of justice for society, and we hope that that will carry on. Their set-up is such that, in some cases, it is not necessary to employ legal counsel, although we all know that tribunal cases can also become extremely complicated, so a lawyer is required in most.

As we can see from the concerns that were raised in witness statements to the committee, the possible judicialisation of management and procedure of tribunals is worrying, because it would mean that tribunals would be out of step in terms of accessibility. It has been suggested that tribunals might be subjected to what I think has been called “courtification”—according to my notes, the word was used by Christine Grahame, so it obviously cannot be wrong.

In broad terms, I agree with the committee in feeling strongly that individual aspects of the various tribunals—for example, the Additional Support Needs Tribunal and the Mental Health Tribunal—should not be lost within the new system. Under the bill, the Mental Health Tribunal will become an individual chamber within the first-tier tribunal and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland will also transfer. As several speakers have pointed out, Lands Tribunal cases can be incredibly complicated, so perhaps we need to consider whether it is not so much a tribunal as a court. I know that the complexities were described by the minister. Fears about loss of identity and loss of methods of working that have been gained over many years should be allayed.

Another concern that is highlighted in the report relates to the children’s hearings system, which has just undergone a period of reform. We should keep that in mind if further reforms are required, and we should try to avoid children’s hearings being included in the tribunals system. A power to make such a modification is given to ministers in section 26(2)(b), which requires that regulations that are subject to affirmative procedure be laid before Parliament. I have a lot of notes on that, but Margaret Mitchell has already kindly raised all those concerns, so I shall not mention them again.

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Meeting of the Parliament 07 November 2013

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