The Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020 No. 3) (the 2020 Regulations).

The amendments make changes to tribunal practice, including providing, in certain circumstances, for two or more claimants to make their claims on a single claim form, to allow an employment judge to sit alone in certain circumstances, allowing the issue of default judgments and the recording of judgments on the Register.

Schedule 1 of the 2020 Regulations is amended as follows.

Regulation 2(2) makes changes to Rule 9(1) further setting out the requirements for the presentation of a claim.

Regulation 2(3) amends Rule 10 to provide for two or more claimants to make their claims on the same claim form if their claims give rise to common or related issues of fact or law or if it is otherwise reasonable for their claims to be made on a single claim form.

Regulation 2(4) amends Rule 11 to allow for discretion where there is a discrepancy between the early conciliation number on the claim form and the early conciliation number on the early conciliation certificate.

Regulation 2(5) amends Rule 12 to allow an employment judge to accept a claim form with an error which gave rise to a rejection where the error has been rectified or where it would not be in the interests of justice to reject the claim.

Regulation 2(6) amends Rule 15 to allow a response form to include the response of more than one respondent or the response to more than one claim if the responses or the claims give rise to common or related issues of fact or law or if it is otherwise reasonable for the responses to be made on a single response form.

Regulation 2(7), (8) and (9) amend Rules 19, 23 and 24 to provide for the entry of a default judgment.

Regulation 2(10) amends Rule 48 to provide for Tribunals to give reasonable notice to the parties of the date of the hearing.

Regulation 2(11) amends Rule 52 to provide for the listing of cases for final hearing with less than 14 days notice upon consent of the parties.

Regulation 2(12) amends Rule 53 to allow an employment judge to sit alone in certain circumstances.

Regulation 2(13) amends Rule 61 to provide that judgments for withdrawn claims are exempted from the requirement to record on the Register.

Regulation 2(14) amends Rule 73 in relation to the making of costs orders. The effect of this amendment is that a Tribunal may consider whether to make a costs order where there has been a postponement or adjournment following a late application by one of the parties.

An impact assessment has not been produced for these Regulations as no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.