Social Security Act 1998

7 Constitution of appeal tribunals

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, an appeal tribunal shall consist of one, two or three members drawn by the President from the panel constituted under section 6 above.

(2) The member, or (as the case may be) at least one member, of an appeal tribunal must—

(a) have a general qualification (construed in accordance with section 71 of the [1990 c. 41.] Courts and Legal Services Act 1990); or

(b) be an advocate or solicitor in Scotland.

(3) Where an appeal tribunal has more than one member—

(a) the President shall nominate one of the members as chairman;

(b) decisions shall be taken by a majority of votes; and

(c) unless regulations otherwise provide, the chairman shall have any casting vote.

(4) Where it appears to an appeal tribunal that a matter before it involves a question of fact of special difficulty, then, unless regulations otherwise provide, the tribunal may require one or more experts to provide assistance to it in dealing with the question.

(5) In subsection (4) above “expert” means a member of the panel constituted under section 6 above who appears to the appeal tribunal concerned to have knowledge or experience which would be relevant in determining the question of fact of special difficulty.

(6) Regulations shall make provision with respect to—

(a) the composition of appeal tribunals;

(b) the procedure to be followed in allocating cases among differently constituted tribunals; and

(c) the manner in which expert assistance is to be given under subsection (4) above.

(7) Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect for supplementing this section.