Section 21: Deployment of the judiciary
396.Section 7(2) of the CRA lists responsibilities of the Lord Chief Justice as President of the Courts of England and Wales. These responsibilities include, at paragraph (c), the “maintenance of appropriate arrangements” for the deployment of the judiciary of England and Wales. Similarly, Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the 2007 Act specifies that the Senior President of the Tribunals has the function of assigning judges and members to the chambers of the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal.
397.In the tribunals, the scheme of assignment is in part specified in the 2007 Act itself and supplemented by a policy which the Senior President of Tribunals is required to publish (by paragraph 13 of Schedule 4). Within the court system the arrangements for deploying judges are largely uncodified. Each piece of legislation dealing with court jurisdiction specifies which judicial office holders may sit in that court, and arrangements for their deployment to that court are overseen by the Lord Chief Justice.
398.Judges of the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal cannot at present be deployed into the courts at all. The purpose of section 21 and Schedule 14 is to resolve these difficulties. See also the provisions inserted by Schedules 9 and 10 about who are to be judges of the county court and family court.
399.Section 21 expands the Lord Chief Justice’s deployment responsibilities insofar as they are not already covered by section 7(2) of the CRA, and requires him or her to have regard to the similar responsibilities of the Senior President of Tribunals. The responsibilities are to maintain appropriate arrangements for the deployment to tribunals of judiciary who are deployable to tribunals, and for the deployment to courts in England and Wales of judiciary who are deployable to those courts. Further, it provides that Schedule 14 has effect.
