These Rules amend the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008 (S.I. 2008/2699) and the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008 (S.I. 2008/2698).

In disability discrimination in schools cases where a person seeks the reinstatement of a pupil who has been permanently excluded, the time limit for a respondent to submit a response to the Tribunal has been altered to 15 working days after the respondent received the application notice. In other cases, where reinstatement is not claimed, the time limit remains unaltered. These amendments to the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules are contained in rules 2 and 3.

Amendments are also being made for the purposes of appeals against decisions of the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland relating to goods vehicles. As the procedures needed for these cases are similar to those which already apply in the Upper Tribunal for appeals from the decisions of traffic commissioners, the amendments are being added into those rules which already apply to appeals against traffic commissioners’ decisions and both are newly defined as “road transport cases”. These amendments to the Upper Tribunal Rules are contained in rules 4 to 9.