Part 1U.K.Tribunals and Inquiries

Chapter 2U.K.First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal

[F1Use of live video or audio links: public participation & offences of recording etcU.K.

Textual Amendments

F1Ss. 29ZA-29ZD and cross-heading inserted (temp.) (25.3.2020) by virtue of Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7), s. 87(1), Sch. 25 para. 2 (with ss. 88-90) (which affecting provision is continued (E.W.) by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Delay in Expiry: Inquests, Courts and Tribunals, and Statutory Sick Pay) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/362), reg. 2, but expires (S.N.I.) (25.3.2022) by Coronavirus Act 2020 (c. 7), s. 89 (with s. 90); and which affecting provision is repealed in so far as it is still in force (28.6.2022) by Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (c. 32), s. 201(2), 208(1); S.I. 2022/704, regs. 1(2), 2)

29ZCOffences of recording or transmitting participation through live linkU.K.

(1)It is an offence for a person to make, or attempt to make—

(a)an unauthorised recording, or

(b)an unauthorised transmission,

of an image or sound which is being transmitted through a live video link or transmitted through a live audio link.

(2)It is an offence for a person (P) to make, or attempt to make—

(a)an unauthorised recording, or

(b)an unauthorised transmission,

of an image of, or sound made by, any person (whether P or another person) while that person is participating in tribunal proceedings through a live video link or a live audio link.

(3)It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) or (2) to prove that, at the time of the actual or attempted recording or transmission, he or she did not know, and could not reasonably have known, that the image or sound concerned—

(a)was being transmitted through a live video link or through a live audio link (in the case of an offence under subsection (1)), or

(b)was an image of, or sound made by, a person while that person was participating in tribunal proceedings through a live video link or a live audio link (in the case of an offence under subsection (2)).

(4)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(5)For the purposes of this section it does not matter whether a person making, or attempting to make, a recording or transmission intends the recording or transmission, or anything comprised in it, to be seen or heard by any other person.

(6)For the purposes of this section a recording or transmission is “unauthorised” unless it is—

(a)authorised (generally or specifically) by the Tribunal in which the proceedings concerned are being conducted, or

(b)authorised (generally or specifically) by the Lord Chancellor.]