Police Appeals Tribunal transfer to Scottish Tribunals structure regulations: final business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 2: Engagement and information gathering

Engagement approach

The set of regulations to transfer the PAT has been developed following stakeholder consultation and a public consultation. The President of Scottish Tribunals and the Lord President have both been consulted and their suggestions have been acted upon where appropriate. There has been regular engagement with the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, the Scottish Police Authority and Scottish Government Police Division colleagues regarding the practicalities of the transfer.

The public consultation can be found Scottish Government website.

Internal SG engagement

The Tribunals Policy team have worked with Police Division colleagues on the development of the regulations and in respect of the practicalities of the proposed transfer. There has been an awareness during the development of the regulations of the impact of the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Act 2025.

UK/ Devolved Administrations

There has been engagement with the Ministry of Defence Police in respect of any impacts on the reserved Ministry of Defence Police Appeals Tribunal and the associated regulations.

Wider Public Sector

Regular engagement and monthly meetings have been held with SCTS and Judicial Office for Scotland staff.

SCTS supports the Scottish justice system by providing people, buildings and services needed to support the judiciary and courts. This includes the devolved tribunal system. This set of regulations also allows staff from SCTS to assist with administrative tasks in the Scottish Tribunals. Anticipated levels of appeals regarding these regulations are expected to be relatively small (around 2-3 per year), therefore any impact on SCTS is expected to be minimal.

The Judicial Office for Scotland provides support to the Lord President in his role as head of the Scottish judiciary with responsibility for the training, welfare, deployment, guidance and conduct of judges/tribunal members and the efficient disposal of business in the courts and tribunals. The President of Scottish Tribunals, who presides over the Scottish Tribunals, is assigned to their role by the Lord President

International

The set of regulations apply locally and do not have any international dimension.

Business / Third Sector engagement

The set of regulations to facilitate the transfer of the PAT will not have any impact on Scottish businesses. The regulations are in respect of transferring the functions and members of the existing PAT into the Scottish Tribunals structure. The right of police constables to appeal to a tribunal remains in place.

Public consultation

A full public consultation was conducted on the draft regulations to transfer the Police Appeals Tribunal from 30 October 2024 and until 22 January 2025. There were seven responses to the consultation. Six (86%) came from organisations and one (14%) came from an individual.

There was general support for the principles behind the transfer, with strong support for transferring existing members of the PAT if possible. The responses to the open questions gave helpful feedback on some of the technical provisions within the draft regulations or made more general suggestions around clarifying certain procedure rules and the effect of recent primary legislation. There was broad support for the Tribunal to have the power to award expenses against a party in certain circumstances. All responses agreed that decisions of the First-tier Tribunal should be published, so long as there is a mechanism for certain sensitive matters to be redacted.

The public consultation can be found Scottish Government website.