Subject:
"Admissability of evidence and role of Presenting Officers"
First topic | Last topic
Neil Bateman
Welfare rights consultant, www.neilbateman.co.uk Member since 24th Jan 2004
Admissability of evidence and role of Presenting Officers Fri 19-Mar-04 09:10 AM
Would be grateful for any Commissioner's decisions (or other caselaw) governing: 1) Use of statements taken by DWP fraud staff for criminal proceedings which were not tested for admissability nor reliability by the Court because the case collapsed before matters got to that stage. DWP now wish to use the statements for a Tribunal hearing on S 71 overpayment recovery.
2) DWP have sent these statements to the Chair in advance of their submission - quite extraordinary behaviour. Any Commisisoner's Decisions which may bear on this would be helpful as it raises issues of appearance of bias and equality of arms.
2) Any Commissioner's Decisions about rules of evidence which Tribunals should apply (current edition of Rowland is fairly mute on this point) and we know that normal rules of evidence don't apply but there may well have been Commissioner's Decisions clarifying this.
3) Any caselaw about the role of Presenting Officer as amicus curiae.
