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WQ.461/2023
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BY THE CONNÉTABLE OF ST. MARY
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 13th NOVEMBER 2023 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 20th NOVEMBER 2023
Question
“Will the Minister provide the annual budget, and the actual expenditure broken down into staff and ancillary costs, for each of the following tribunals –
- Social Security Tribunal;
- Social Security Medical Tribunal;
- Income Support Medical Appeal Tribunal; and
- Health and Safety Appeal Tribunal;
And, where Tribunal members are voluntary, will she also provide an estimate of unpaid time worked for each Tribunal?”
Answer
The Minister cannot provide the annual budget and the actual expenditure broken down into staff and ancillary costs for the above tribunals. The Tribunal Service is run by the Judicial Greffe, and the Judicial Greffe are unable to provide this information in the form requested.
The budget for the Tribunal Service covers the employment of a full-time manager and two staff along with the cost of their offices and hearing rooms including the necessary IT infrastructure. The Tribunal Service covers, and its budget is applied to the following different services:
- The Employment and Discrimination Tribunal
- The Mental Health Review Tribunal
- The Social Security Tribunal (SST), which covers (a), (b) and (c) in the question.
- The Planning Tribunal
- The Charity Tribunal
- The Health & Safety Tribunal (HST)
It also holds and maintains The Register of Trade Unions and Employers Associations which includes registering applications to the register.
The Judicial Greffe does not hold a separate annual budget for the SST or the HST.
To the extent that the SST and the HST use the staff and facilities provided for the Tribunal Service as a whole, the Tribunal Service does not separate out the staff and ancillary costs associated with those particular Tribunals.
In addition to the Tribunal Service’s costs, each Tribunal which hears appeals against the decision of a particular Department will cause costs to be incurred within that Department. For both the SST and HST, CLS pays the expenses and fees of the Tribunal members. There have been no HST cases in recent years. There are no voluntary members of the SST or HST and all members of the relevant Tribunals are paid for their work.
For SST and SSMAT the payments for 2023 to date are as follows:
Social Security Tribunal - £2,050
Social Security Medical Appeal Tribunal - £2,090
These amounts reflect fees paid to tribunal members and include payments to the Chair of the relevant tribunal for writing a report. They do not include any staff or ancillary costs.