Appeal Tribunals

AuthorAndrew Bano
Pages199-203

Chapter 24

Appeal Tribunals

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRIBUNAL SYSTEM
24.1 The Pensions Appeal Tribunal was established in July 1917 and sat for the first time in August of that year. The tribunal consisted of a county court judge, an admiral, a general, a surgeon, a physician and a trade union representative.1In July 1918, a smaller tribunal was set up, consisting of a chairman, who was usually a lawyer, and two service members. The tribunal was assisted by a medical assessor, who could conduct medical examinations and question witnesses, but who could not participate in the tribunal’s decision-making process. In theory, the tribunal’s role was advisory, although in practice the authorities regarded themselves as bound to accept the tribunal’s decisions.

24.2 The Pensions Appeal Tribunals were placed on a statutory footing by the War Pensions (Administrative Provisions) Act 1919, which provided for the members of tribunals to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor and their equivalents in Scotland and Ireland (as it then was), and for the tribunal chairman to be a barrister or solicitor of not less than 7 years’ standing. The other tribunal members were a qualified medical practitioner and a disabled ex-serviceman, who had to be an officer if the appeal was brought by a former officer or nurse. The tribunals constituted under the 1919 Act marked the start of a fully independent war pensions adjudication system.

24.3 The tribunals established by the 1919 Act dealt only with appeals against the rejection of claims and cases where a person’s negligence or misconduct was in issue. In order to avoid the need for periodic re-assessment of claimants whose condition had stabilised, the War Pensions Act 1921 was passed to allow final assessments of disablement to be made. The 1921 Act created separate tribunals, known as Assessment Tribunals, to hear appeals against the making of final

1The members of the first tribunal were HHJ Parry, Admiral Sir Wilmot Fawkes, Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Codrington, Sir Norman Moore, Mr B Pollard and Mr A Bellamy.

200 War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation – Law and Practice

assessments and against the percentage assessment of disablement when an assessment was made final. Assessment Tribunals included a service member and two doctors, one of whom acted as the tribunal chairman.

24.4 The Second World War resulted in a need to provide compensation for injury sustained by non-service personnel, for example Civil Defence Volunteers, merchant seamen and civilians injured as a result of enemy action. The Pensions Appeal Tribunals Act 1943 gave appeal rights to all classes of personnel entitled to claim compensation for injury or death, and remains the source of rights of appeal against both war pensions and armed forces...

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