Tribunals now deal with a number of different rights and issues, including, * Redundancy payments * Sex & race discrimination * Disability rights * Immigration rights * Mobility allowance * Unfair dismissal
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 The welfare state grew in a piecemeal way in the second half of the last century with new tribunals being established as and when necessary to enable people to enforce their new rights. This resulted in there being more than 70 different types of tribunals many using different procedures. This made the tribunal system complicated, confusing and inefficient. The Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 reformed the system creating a unified structure with a First-tier Tribunal to hear cases at first instance (the original hearing of the case) and an Upper Tribunal to hear appeals. First-tier Tribunals These deal with around 300,000 cases every year and have nearly 200 Tribunal Judges and 3,600 lay members. It operates in seven different Chambers or divisions as follows; * The Social Entitlement Chamber * The Health, Education and Social Care Chamber * The War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber * The General regulatory Chamber * The Taxation Chamber * The Land, Property and Housing Chamber * The Asylum and Immigration Chamber
There is also the Employment Tribunal which will continue to operate outside of the new system and is separate from the First-tier Tribunal. Upper Tribunal The Upper Tribunal is divided into four Chambers as follows; * The Administrative Appeals Chamber * The Tax and Chancery Chamber * The Lands Chamber * The Asylum and Immigration Chamber
From the Upper Tribunal there is a possible further appeal to the Court of Appeal and then onto the Supreme Court. The Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council This body oversees the work of tribunals and replaces the Council on Tribunals.