Upper Tribunal timescale?

As a relatively new WRO I am dealing with my first appeal to the Upper Tribunal. I fired off the UT1 permission to appeal form on Valentine’s Day (after the FtT refused permission) and received confirmation of receipt by the UT a few days later.

Since then I’ve not heard anything at all. As this is my first time dealing with the UT, I don’t really know how long it takes for the wheels to begin turning at this level - can I please draw on the experience of those who have had previous dealings with the UT to tell me how long it usually takes to receive confirmation of whether or not permission to appeal has been granted by a UT judge?

It took the FtT DJ less than 2 weeks to refuse permission to appeal to the UT, so 17 weeks (and counting) to renew the application directly with the UT feels a bit excessive…! If it is unduly late I will contact the UT but as I said, I really don’t know how long these things should take, so if this is a normal timescale I won’t bother them just yet.

Thank you!

You would generally receive confirmation of the application for leave to appeal from the Upper Tribunal within a couple of weeks. Within the next couple of weeks, you usually hear from HMCTS to say that they have sent all the paperwork to the Upper Tribunal, and then the case is passed to a Judge for consideration. From recent conversations, I know that they’re pretty stretched at the moment, so initial decisions on whether the application will be allowed to proceed are taking longer than usual, but if you want an update, call the UT office on 020 7071 5662 and they can inform appropriately.

Unless the UT considers the application manifestly ill-founded it will usually send an acknowledgement letter informing the parties that it has requested the appeal papers from the FtT.  The UT will then either refuse the application or allow it.  If it allows it will state brief reasons and give directions.  One of the directions will be to give the respondent one month to make a submission and for the appellant on receiving that submission a further month to respond.  After the periods have expired the UT will then give its full judgement.  Three to six months is an average time scale from initial lodgement with the FtT to the UT’s final judgement.  If the appeal is allowed and remitted back it can take up to a further three months for the FtT to re-hear the case.