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Written Question
Disability and Special Educational Needs: Tribunals
Wednesday 20th May 2020

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal hearings were cancelled for the second or subsequent time in the 2019 calendar year.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

I have to advise the Noble Lord that this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The next release of data will be the Tribunals Quarterly Statistics on 11 June 2020 which will provide information from January to March 2020 and can be found at this address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Friday 13th March 2020

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of cancellations of first hearings in Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunals.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The Ministry of Justice recognises that there is a high level of postponements in the Special Educational Needs and Disability jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (“the SEND Tribunal”). Statistics show that 77% of cases listed for hearing in 2018/19 were postponed, compared with 76% in 2017/18. The number of postponements (2,900 in 2018/19) is due to two factors. The first is that there has been a significant increase in the number of appeals received (an increase of more than in the last three years); and the second is related to the listing policy currently in place where cases are listed for hearing upon receipt and hearings have to be postponed if the date is unsuitable to the parties involved.

The SEND Tribunal has increased the number of administrative staff, legal advisers, salaried and fee-paid judges in the course of the past year. A campaign to recruit a further 50 fee-paid judges and 100 specialist members is being taken forward by the Judicial Appointments Commission. The posts will be filled in the next financial year.

The tribunal will introduce a revised listing process in April 2020 under which parties will be asked to identify, in a two-week window, dates on which they will be able to attend. This will enable a mutually convenient date to be identified in advance of the hearing being fixed.

These two measures will reduce the number of cases which are postponed after they have been listed for hearing.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Tuesday 10th March 2020

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to compensate parents who have appealed to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal but whose first hearing was cancelled without adequate notice and as a result have incurred expense.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) is free to access and use, but where appellants have incurred and can evidence financial loss as a consequence of the postponement of a hearing they may apply for a compensatory payment. Each application for an ex-gratia payment is treated on its own merits and dealt with in accordance with HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s complaints procedure.

Examples of the types of claims which might be made include the payment of any legal expenses incurred and, where the hearing has been postponed at short notice, the payment of loss of earnings of witnesses who have been unable to find other remunerative employment on the date in question.

In 2018/19 there were 17 applications for a compensatory payment, 14 of which related to the cancellation of the first hearing. The average sum paid was £2,347.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Friday 2nd August 2019

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on appellants of First-Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) hearings being cancelled; and what plans they have to mitigate this impact, including any plans to offer financial compensation.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service has assessed the impact on all its customers of hearings being cancelled, and has listened to the views of users at recent user groups.

To mitigate this, the SEND Tribunal has increased the number of administrative staff, legal advisers and judges to reduce the number of cases which are postponed after they have been listed for hearing and is recruiting additional judges.

SEND Tribunals are free to access and use, but where appellants have incurred and can evidence financial loss as a consequence of the postponement of a hearing they may apply for a compensatory payment. Each application for an ex-gratia payment is treated on its own merits.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Monday 8th July 2019

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of HM Courts and Tribunal Services statistics released in relation to the First Tier (Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal) and in particular the level of fixed SENDIST hearings which have been postponed at least once; and what assessment they have made of the reasons for the level of postponements.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The Ministry of Justice recognises that there is a high level of postponements in the Special Educational Needs and Disability jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (“the SEND Tribunal”). Statistics show that 77% of cases listed for hearing in 2018/19 were postponed, compared with 76% in 2017/18. The number of postponements (2,900 in 2018/19) is due to two factors. The first is that there has been a significant increase in the number of appeals received (a 50% increase over the last three years); and the second is related to the listing policy currently in place where cases are listed for hearing upon receipt and hearings have to be postponed if the date is unsuitable to the parties involved.

The SEND Tribunal has increased the number of administrative staff, legal advisers and judges to reduce the number of cases which are postponed after they have been listed for hearing.


Written Question
Special Educational Needs: Appeals
Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Asked by: Lord Lingfield (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) has sufficient (1) resources, and (2) judges, to cope with the number of cases before it; and what plans they have to (a) provide more resources, and (b) increase the number of judges, where they have found these to be insufficient.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The Special Educational Needs and Disability jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (“the SEND Tribunal”) has seen a 50% increase in appeals over a 3-year period. In response to this, the SEND Tribunal has increased the number of administrative staff from 25 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) members of staff in May 2016, to 43.5 FTE in May 2019. The Legal Advisers team has also increased from 2.6 FTE at the beginning of 2018, to 4.6 FTE in June 2019.

10 new judges were assigned to SEND in September 2018 and a further exercise will be launched in September 2019 for an additional 20 fee paid judges. Parallel to this, HMCTS and the judiciary have been working closely with the Judicial Appointments Commission to recruit judges. In March 2019 21 new fee paid Judges were successfully recruited.