Statement of Reasons

Have just received a SoR for recent appeal case.  The SoR does not include recording or hand written minute of the hearing.  Is this a good enough reason to seek a set aside.

No.

The statement of reasons is just that - the reasons for the tribunal’s decision written down.

You are thinking of the Record of Proceedings which is the (usually) handwritten contemporaneous notes taken by the judge.

Since the Rules came into being in 2008 there is no statutory requirement for these to be kept - and it follows therefore that they can’t be produced.

However the Tribunal President issued a practice statement requiring judges to keep a record and that has to be available on request for up to 6 months and longer where other actions are being pursued. You could track down the detail of that on the HMCTS site - if memory is correct it was one of the first ones issued so will be October or November 2008.

I’ll have a guess here that you haven’t actually asked for that record, only the Statement. It can be helpful in identifying grounds upon which to seek leave. If you do ask for it don’t forget that the time limits for making an application for leave will have already started.

Thank you for replying.  In future, I shall ask for the ROP.  I did not realise that I had to do this.    In the past, when I have requested a SOR a ROP has been included.  In this case, I had requested two SORs for two separate cases - same judge & same day (a bad day).  One SOR came with the audio disc/ROP and the other without.  This was the cause of my concern.