525.This section confers on the Lord Chancellor a power to make regulations in connection with court and tribunal fees. Subsection (1) provides the Lord Chancellor with a power, subject to Treasury agreement, to prescribe fees under certain enactments of an amount which is designed to exceed the cost to which those activities relate (“enhanced fees”).
526.Subsection (2) sets out the enactments under which the power to charge an enhanced fee applies. Its effect is that such fees can be charged for things done in the civil and family courts in England and Wales, tribunals, the Office of the Public Guardian and the Court of Protection.
527.Subsection (3) requires the Lord Chancellor in using this power to have regard to:
the financial position of the courts and tribunals; and
the competitiveness of the legal services market.
528.Subsections (5) and (6) set out the purpose for charging enhanced fees, namely, financing the efficient and effective running of the relevant court and tribunal services and of the efficient and effective discharge of the functions of the Office of the Public Guardian.
529.Subsections (7) and (8) provide that any statutory instrument brought forward to introduce an enhanced fee is subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, except where the increase is made solely to reflect inflation, in which case the negative resolution procedure applies.