The Government recently announced their intention to make major increases to Tribunal Fees to take effect as soon as possible.
Despite significant opposition to the increases when the new fees were circulated for consultation the Government has decided to press ahead with the fee increases. Therefore from Monday, 10th October 2016 fees at the First-tier and Upper Tribunals will be increasing as follows:
Appeal Type | Current Fee | New Fee |
First-tier Tribunal (FTT) | ||
Application for decision on papers | £80 | £490 |
Application for oral hearing | £140 | £800 |
Application to the FTT for permission to appeal to Upper Tribunal | Nil | £455 |
Upper Tribunal (UT) | ||
Application to UT for permission to appeal to the UT | Nil | £350 |
Appeal Hearing | Nil | £510 |
There will be limited exemptions to the fees including those who received a Home Office fee waiver when making their initial application, those who qualify for legal aid or asylum support and those appealing against a decision to deprive citizenship. For the vast majority the full fee will be required and only in exceptional circumstances will a fee remission or reduction be granted by the Lord Chancellor. Where appeals are successful litigants can recover their Tribunal Fees.
Strict time limits will continue to apply and it is expected that in many cases this will deter litigants from appealing and make them more likely to pursue a fresh application rather than an appeal, even where the appeal stands a very good chance of success, particularly in the case of EU Migrants.
Although this is likely to reduce the workload of the Tribunals it is unimaginable that this will not have grave and very harmful consequences to the justice and fairness of the Immigration system in the UK.