Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to enable litigants who win First Tier Tribunal cases to recover costs.

The tribunals of the unified tribunal system are designed to be an informal, accessible and low cost means of resolving disputes, in which legal representation is not needed. For this reason, costs are not generally recoverable between the parties in proceedings before the First-tier Tribunal.

Procedure rules for some chambers of the First-tier Tribunal do provide for costs to be awarded in certain circumstances, for example where a party has conducted the litigation unreasonably.

We have no plans to change the rules so that costs can be awarded routinely in proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal.