The tribunals structure has been declared “fit for purpose” by the Senior President of Tribunals, Sir Jeremy Sullivan, in his Annual Report.
More than 850,000 cases were determined during the financial year 2013-14 by nearly 6,000 tribunal judges and non-legal members. The introduction of fees for employment hearings reduced applications to just 20% of the levels of previous years. Appeals were also reduced but to a lesser extent—the London office of the Employment Appeal Tribunal received 55% of the applications of previous years.
The Immigration and Asylum Chamber dealt with an unexpected increase in managed migration receipts as the Home Office attempted to clear historical backlogs, and the forecasted decrease in appeals failed to materialise as there was a higher propensity to appeal.
