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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

I support the amendment although I do so to some extent in a spirit of inquiry, as I found the noble Lord’s reasoning on Second Reading extremely powerful, particularly his invocation of the arguments for informality and approachability that had been adumbrated by the Franks committee half a century ago in its approach to the regularisation of administrative tribunals. There is, however, another question that the Minister might also address. The use of ““judge”” suggests a somewhat different role from that of the member, who is not so described. In practice, the members will operate as equal members when sitting in consideration of a case and reaching their decisions, but the use of ““judge”” almost suggests a hierarchical ranking of one member over the other. The use of ““legal”” is purely descriptive of a professional qualification, and it would be unfortunate if some members of the tribunal were more equal than others.