The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is responsible for
monitoring organisations' compliance with freedom of information
and data protection laws. Appeals against its ruling have until now
gone through the Information Tribunal.
From today, though, the Information Tribunal has been subsumed
into the General Regulatory Chamber (GRC), part of a unified
tribunals service.
The unification of tribunals services is part of a Government
plan to centralise tribunal activity. Tribunals covering tax and
property issues already form a part of the service.
Other Tribunals becoming part of the GRC include the Gambling
Appeals Tribunal; the Claims Management Tribunal; the Immigration
Services Tribunal; and the Family Health Services Appeal
Authority.
The move involves a change to the structure of appeals against
ICO decisions. A first tier tribunal will hear initial cases but it
will be possible to appeal these to an Upper Tribunal's
Administrative Appeals chamber.
Last year the Tribunals Service told potential users of the new
structure, though, that some issues will be deemed serious enough
to be heard immediately by that Upper Tribunal.
"For some information rights appeals, cases will be heard in the
first instance in the Upper Tribunal," said Tribunals Service
officer Mike Watson in a letter to the Service's users last year.
"This will occur where it is considered that the appeal raises
complex or unusual issues and the importance of the case would
merit it being dealt with in the higher Tribunal."
The High Court previously heard appeals from the Information
Tribunal. Cases will now go straight from the Upper Tribunal to the
Court of Appeals, the Service said.
A Statutory Instrument published earlier this month ordered that
the changes take place today and that from today the Information
Tribunal be abolished.
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