Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeal hearings were cancelled in (a) 2014, (b) 2015 and (c) the first eight months of 2016 at the (i) First-tier Tribunal and (ii) Upper-tier Tribunal due to documents from the Home Office not being submitted before the hearing date.

Sir Oliver Heald

The First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chambers) are administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

The number of appeal hearings adjourned at the hearing, or postponed prior to the hearing, due to documents from the Home Office not being submitted before the hearing date was:

(i) First-tier Tribunal: (a) 2014 – 833 and (b) 2015 – 739

(ii) Upper Tribunal: (a) 2014 – 17 and (b) 2015 – 8

The number of appeal hearings either adjourned at the hearing, or postponed prior to the hearing due to documents from the Home Office not being submitted before the hearing date in the first six months of 2016, which are the latest figures available, was:

(i) First-tier Tribunal – 269

(ii) Upper Tribunal – 1

Data provided are internal Management Information and not subject to the same quality checks as Official Statistics.