Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

• (b) where sub-paragraph (a) does not apply, that each party has a period of 15 working days beginning with the date of the order of the superior court to submit a supplementary statement of his case and further written evidence.

• (4) The Secretary of the Tribunal shall forthwith send a copy of all statements and written evidence received from a party during the periods referred to in paragraphs (2) and (3)(b) to the other party.

Irregularities

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• (1) An irregularity resulting from failure to comply with any provision of these Regulations or of any direction of the tribunal before the tribunal has reached its decision shall not of itself render the proceedings void.

• (2) Where any such irregularity comes to the attention of the tribunal, the tribunal may, and shall, if it considers that any person may have been prejudiced by the irregularity, give such directions as it thinks just before reaching its decision to cure or to waive the irregularity.

• (3) Clerical mistakes in any document recording the decision of the tribunal or a direction or decision of the President produced by or on behalf of the tribunal or errors arising in such documents from accidental slips or omissions may at any time be corrected by the chairman or President (as the case may be) by certificate under his hand.

• (4) The Secretary of the Tribunal shall as soon as may be send a copy of any corrected document containing reasons for the tribunal’s decision, to each party.

• (5) Where a parent has appointed a representative in accordance with regulation 12 or 22, the Secretary of the Tribunal shall (notwithstanding regulation 12(4) or 22(4)) send a copy of the document referred to in paragraph (4) to the parent as well as the representative.

• (6) Where these Regulations require the chairman to sign a document, but by reason of death or incapacity he is unable to do so, the other members of the tribunal shall sign it and certify that the chairman is unable to sign.

Method of sending, delivering or serving notices and documents

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• (1) A notice given under these Regulations shall be in writing and a party whom the Regulations require to notify a matter to the Secretary of the Tribunal shall do so in writing.

• (2) Notices and documents required by these Regulations to be sent or delivered to the Secretary of the Tribunal or to the Tribunal may be sent by post, by facsimile transmission or by electronic mail to or delivered at the office of the Tribunal or such other office as the Secretary of the Tribunal may notify to the parties.

• (3) Notices and documents which these Regulations authorise or require the President or the Secretary of the Tribunal to send may (subject to paragraph (5)) either be sent by first class post or by facsimile transmission to or delivered at—

• (a) in the case of a party—

• (i) his address for service specified in the notice of appeal or claim or in a written reply or in a notice under paragraph (4), or

• (ii) if no address for service has been so specified his last known address; and

• (b) in the case of any other person, his place of residence or business or if such person is a corporation, the corporation’s registered or principal office.

• (4) A party may at any time by notice to the Secretary of the Tribunal change his address for service under these Regulations.

• (5) The recorded delivery service shall be used instead of first class post for service of a summons under regulation 36 requiring the attendance of a witness.

• (6) A document or notice sent by the Secretary of the Tribunal by post in accordance with these Regulations, and not returned, shall be taken to have been delivered to the addressee on the second type=start time=1231516101281daytype=end time=1231516101281 for normal postal deliveries after it was posted.

• (7) A notice or document sent by facsimile transmission or electronic mail shall be taken to have been delivered when it is received in legible form.

• (8) Where for any sufficient reason service of any document or notice cannot be effected in the manner prescribed under this regulation, the President may dispense with service or make an order for substituted service in such manner as he may deem fit and such service shall have the same effect as service in the manner prescribed under this regulation.

Extensions of time

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• (1) Where these Regulations or a direction made under them requires or authorises a person to do something within a period of time, the President may, on the application of that person or on his own motion, in exceptional circumstances extend that period of time.

• (2) Where the President has extended a period of time reference in these Regulations to that period of time shall be construed as a reference to the period of time as so extended.

Change of Board (SEN appeals only)

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• (1) This regulation applies if, after the date on which the disputed decision is taken, the child becomes the responsibility, within the meaning of Article 13 of the 1996 Order, of a Board (“the new Board”) other than the Board which made the disputed decision (“the old Board”).

• (2) On receiving evidence that this regulation applies, the President may order that, for all the purposes of the appeal, the name of the new Board be substituted for the old Board.

• (3) The old Board, the new Board and the parent shall have an opportunity to be heard before an order is made under paragraph (2).

• (4) When an order is made under paragraph (2)—

• (a) the Secretary of the Tribunal shall notify the old Board, the new Board and the parent;

• (b) the old Board shall no longer be a party to the appeal;

• (c) the new Board shall become a party to the appeal;

• (d) these Regulations shall apply as if the new Board had made the disputed decision;

• (e) the Secretary of the Tribunal shall send to the new Board copies of all the documents and written evidence relating to the appeal duly received by the Tribunal from the parent and the old Board;

• (f) the procedure for determining the appeal shall re-start, and regulation 27 shall apply as if the documents and written evidence sent in accordance with sub-paragraph (e) were the notice of appeal referred to in regulation 27(1).

Revocation and saving

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• (1) Subject to paragraph (2) the Special Educational Needs Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997[^f00005] are hereby revoked.

• (2) In relation to any appeal where the notice of appeal was entered in the records of the Tribunal before 1st September 2005, those Regulations shall continue to apply to such an appeal.

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Education on 15th July 2005.

June Ingram — Assistant Secretary of the — Department of Education

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations make provision in relation to the establishment of and regulate the procedure of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal established by type=start time=1231516128671Article 21type=end time=1231516128671 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (Northern Ireland) Order 2005.

The Regulations make provision for and regulate the procedures for both appeals under Part II to and Schedule 2 of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, and claims in respect of disability discrimination in schools under type=start time=1231516143000Article 21 and 22type=end time=1231516143000. They revoke the Special Educational Needs Tribunal Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997, subject to a saving provision for existing appeals.

The procedures are set out in Parts II to VI of the Regulations and broadly follow, with modification, the procedures for special educational needs appeals under Part II to and Schedule 2 of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1996/274 (N.I. 1); paragraph (2) of Article 23 was amended and paragraph (4A) was inserted by paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 to S.I. 2005/1117 (N.I. 6)

[^f00002]: S.I. 2005/1117 (N.I. 6)

[^f00003]: Schedule 2 was substituted by Article 12 of and Schedule 1 to S.I. 2005/1117 (N.I. 6)

[^f00004]: As inserted by Article 8 of S.I. 2005/1117 (N.I. 6)

[^f00005]: S.R. 1997 No. 315