[2025] UKUT 322 (AAC)

This appeal is about the need for tribunalsto ensure that their findings of fact are grounded in evidence, to avoid the temptation to speculate about matters on which they have heard no evidence, and to make clear findings of fact about each matter that is necessary to determine the material issues in the appeal.

In this case the Tribunal should have stuck to hearing the evidence, assessing it critically, and making findings based on the evidence as it assessed it. The Tribunal fell into error when it strayed into speculating about whether the claimant and members of his family might adopt “traditional roles”, a matter on which it heard no evidence.