New consultation: tribunal rules impacted by Nationality and Borders Act

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The Tribunal Procedure Committee (“TPC”) has launched a consultation on the potential changes to the Immigration and Asylum Chamber Rules and the Upper Tribunal Rules that will arise from the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the New Plan for Immigration programme. The planned changes include:

Accelerated detained appeals
Priority removal notices
Priority age assessment
Schedule 19 requirements relating to Tribunal reasons and credibility decisions
Rules in relation to expert witnesses

The Committee seems wary of the general approach of the Nationality and Borders Act to tribunal rules, including the process for making significant policy decisions. The Act requires rules to be made in a particular form, but doesn’t set out the rules in detail, or address potential additional rule changes that might follow. There are also details in the consultation document about how priority removal notices and accelerated detained appeals are expected to work and the Committee have highlighted parts of the process that might give rise to concern in future cases:

“The TPC view is that these deadlines suggested by the Government are too short to be practical. The TPC is also considering whether it is appropriate for an appellant to have less time in which to appeal a decision than the respondent has to respond to an appeal.
There might be some justification for this, given that the Notice of Appeal in a reform style process is brief and therefore might be thought quicker to produce than the more substantive response. This, however, is a matter the TPC intends to consider more fully in light of the responses to the consultation. Furthermore, setting timescales that are so short is likely to work against expedition in these cases by creating additional work and delays when deadlines cannot be met. In addition, potential appellants are likely to be entitled to legal aid in relation to their appeal. Obtaining representation and arranging legal aid is likely to take longer than 7 days. The TPC is also concerned that the proposed deadline in relation to the Respondent’s statement on the issues may also be too short for there to be proper consideration at this stage.”

The consultation closes at 11:59 pm on 19 January 2023, and the questionnaire can be found here.