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Neutral Citation Number:	2014 UKUT 497 AAC
Reported Number:
File Number:	JR 577 2013
Appellant:	R (SB and others)
Respondent:	First-tier Tribunal and CICA
Judge/Commissioner:	Three-Judge Panel / Tribunal of Commissioners
Date Of Decision:	04/11/2014
Date Added:	25/11/2014
Main Category:	Criminal Injuries Compensation
Main Subcategory:	other
Secondary Category:	Tribunal procedure and practice (including UT)
Secondary Subcategory:	tribunal jurisdiction
Notes:	Reported as [2015] AACR 16. Tribunal procedure and practice – whether First-tier Tribunal’s jurisdiction limited to issue (or issues) decided by Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority Criminal injuries – powers of First-tier Tribunal The five claimants were all victims of separate unrelated assaults. They each claimed criminal injuries compensation and had appealed against the decision of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to either the First-tier Tribunal (F-tT) or the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeal Panel (the F-tT’s predecessor). In each case the F-tT acted on the basis that its jurisdiction extended to all issues arising on the application for compensation. The claimants all applied to the Upper Tribunal (UT) for judicial review of the F-tTs’ decisions. The principal issue before the UT was whether the F-tT’s powers were limited to determining the issue which was the actual subject of the appeal. It was submitted on behalf of CICA that the F-tT’s jurisdiction was limited to the scope of the decision under appeal and that any other issues, including the level of compensation, had to be referred to CICA to decide. Held, granting the applications for judicial review and quashing the decisions, that: 1. the F-tT had fully discharged its functions once it had decided the issue (or issues) which was the subject of the review decision under appeal, and it had no power to decide any further matters (its jurisdiction was functus). This prohibition included other eligibility grounds which had not been the subject of the decision under appeal. Accordingly, any remaining issues that arose in order to determine whether any award of compensation should be made under the criminal injuries compensation scheme (including the amount of any such compensation) fell to CICA to decide. Any such further decisions made by CICA would attract a further right of appeal to the F-tT. The F tT therefore acted outside its powers in all five applications when retaining to itself, and then deciding, issues that had not been the subject of the review decisions under appeal (paragraphs 5 and 72 to 103); 2. the UT drew attention to the power in rule 5(3)(e) of the F-tT’s procedure rules enabling the F-tT to decide an issue as a preliminary issue and observed that if this rule were to be invoked, in cases where the CICA review decision under appeal encompassed determinations in respect of both eligibility and compensation, then the time limit to judicially review any preliminary issue so decided would run from the date of that decision or the written reasons for it (paragraph 105); 3. once the F-tT has decided an appeal on the issue (or issues) before it, it has no power to reconsider its own decision under the 2001 Scheme. The reconsideration power in paragraph 53 of the 2001 Scheme vests in CICA alone and the F-tT cannot exercise this power. Further, the reconsideration power in paragraph 55 of the 2001 Scheme is contingent on CICA referring the matter decided back to the F-tT for rehearing and the F-tT has no power to exercise this paragraph 55 power absent such a reference. Accordingly, the F-tT in the third case had no lawful basis for striking out the appeal it had already allowed on the review issue that was under appeal, as there had been no reference to it by CICA under paragraph 55 (paragraphs 109 to 111); 4. paragraph 53 of the 2001 Scheme allows an awarding decision of a CICA claims officer to be reconsidered by the claims officer at any time before payment of the final award, but this reconsideration power does not apply where the awarding decision is one the claims officer has been directed to make by the F-tT pursuant to paragraph 77 of the 2001 Scheme. For that category of awarding decision reconsideration can only be effected pursuant to paragraph 55 of the 2001 Scheme. In neither case, however, are those powers affected by the making of an interim payment (paragraphs 112 to 113). The panel remitted the cases for reconsideration by CICA.
Decision(s) to Download:	[2015] AACR 16ws.doc