ABSTRACT
The new tribunals are known as the First-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal, for the purposes of exercising the functions to be conferred by the Act or any other Act. The Lord Chancellor may by order provide for the transfer of functions of a scheduled tribunal to the First-tier Tribunal, and/or the Upper Tribunal. The First-tier Tribunal is divided into Chambers in accordance with the Act; individual jurisdictions will be grouped together so that similar work, or jurisdictions requiring similar skills, will be dealt with in a single Chamber. This will be for complex cases or those dealing with issues that have general application and where the Upper Tribunal may set a precedent for the First-tier Tribunal. As appeals go from the First-tier Tribunal to the Upper Tribunal, the First-tier Tribunal is likely to regard itself as bound by the decisions of the Upper Tribunal.
