EAT office closure attacked
31 Oct 05
SNP protests at case management function transferring to London
Scottish employment tribunal appeals are no longer being handled in Edinburgh, although appeal tribunal hearings still take place there.
Adminstration and case management will in future take place at the office in Victoria Embankment, London, after the closure of the secretariat at Melville Street, Edinburgh, where one of the two permanent staff has retired.
The Department of Trade and Industry insisted that there are no substantive changes to the way Scottish EAT work is handled. However SNP justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill said it was "absurd" to be centralising the appeals in London six years into devolution when Scotland had its own Minister for Justice and legal system.