Constitutional law—Supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court—Upper Tribunal

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Sedley, Richards LJJ and Sir Scott Baker, 23 July 2010

Decisions of the Upper Tribunal are amenable to judicial review by the High Court, on the model in R (Sivasubramaniam) v Wandsworth County Court [2003] 1 WLR 475.

Richard Drabble QC and Charles Banner (instructed by David Burrows) for the appellant. James Eadie QC and Sam Grodzinski (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the first and second interested parties Michael Fordham QC and Tim Buley (instructed by the Public Law Project) for the Intervener, the Public Law Project, by written submissions.

By the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (TCE 2007) a single structure was created within which a huge variety of existing tribunals was gathered. Section 3 provided that the Upper Tribunal was to be a superior court of record. Section 25 gave the tribunal in the discharge of its adjudicative functions “the same