AC-2024-LON-000883 - [2025] EWHC 2019 (Admin)

The UNISON case, on which Mr Armstrong relied for his submissions on access to justice, concerned the payment of a fee to the Employment Appeal Tribunal that was a condition of gaining access to a court. We agree with Ms Giovannetti that its context was therefore very different. No such obstacle presented itself to FGF before he was able to lodge his application for review and ask SIAC to determine it. As Chamberlain J held at first instance in C7 (at para 13(c)):

“Many legal systems operate without [costs] powers. In our system, some tribunals have the power to award costs; others do not… There is no warrant for the suggestion that, absent an additional power to award costs, [SIAC] would be unable to do justice between the parties”.

The Court of Appeal in C7 expressly agreed with Chamberlain J that a power to award costs is not necessary to enable SIAC to do justice (C7, para 81 per Elisabeth Laing LJ). We are not persuaded by Mr Armstrong’s submissions that the absence of costs recovery in SIAC contravenes the common law right of access to justice.