With
little fanfare, and at the start of the summer holiday season, the Ministry of
Justice has published its response to an earlier consultation paper on enhanced fees
for divorce proceedings, possession claims, general applications in civil
proceedings and is now consulting on proposals for further fees.
[Yawn.]
Until
you realise that, tucked away in paragraphs 124-127, is the proposal to
introduce fees for proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory
Chamber).
This
chamber deals with a range of regulatory matters, eg those concerning charities, consumer credit, gambling,
transport and appeals from decisions of the Information Commissioner. Currently the only fee income is generated
from appeals in relation to gambling licences.
In
2013-14 the estimated cost of the General Regulatory Chamber was £1.6m. The fee income generated from gambling licence appeals was £11,600. The
MoJ plans to increase the Chamber's fee income to £350,000 by levying new fees.
The
proposal is to charge a fee of £100 to issue proceedings, which would entitle
the claimant to a decision based on a review of the papers. The claimant may
alternatively elect for an oral hearing, in which case a further fee of £500
would be payable. Based on current volumes, the MoJ estimates that this
proposal would generate a cost recovery percentage of around 17% after
remissions.
The
fees will also apply to “reference” cases where cases are started in the first-tier
Tribunal but have to be referred directly to the Upper Tribunal for a first
instance hearing.
What
is not known is what impact this will have on justice. When fees for referrals
to employment tribunals were introduced, the volume of referrals to the
tribunals collapsed. Will this move deter a similar percentage of unhappy DP
complainants? Given the extremely low volume of DP cases that are currently
referred to the Tribunal, it may be some time before this becomes evident.
I
suspect that, given the relatively high number of FOI cases that are referred
to the Tribunal, we’ll soon learn what effect the introduction of fees will have
here.
Will fees really deter claimants who passionately believe in the strength of
their case, but lack the funds to place their £100 / £500 punt? I doubt it. Already
I’ve seen one consultant tweeting that he’ll stump up the £100 fee for
four cases himself – so if the market wants it, there ought to be a safety valve
for complainants who are financially stretched.
But fewer appeals to the Tribunal would mean less work for the ICO (with a consequential impact on staffing levels) and on the demand for highly skilled legal advice from our chums at 11 Kings Bench Walk.
The
MoJ is inviting comments on this proposal by the end of the summer holiday
season (15 September).
So,
take a break from your well-earned summer holiday write to the MoJ if you really feel
passionately about the matter.
Source:
https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/further-fees-proposal-consultation/supporting_documents/enhancedfeesresponseconsultationonfurtherfees.pdf
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