# The Industrial Tribunals (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, Article 11: Pre-hearing reviews and preliminary matters


(1) Industrial tribunal procedure regulations may include provision—
(a) for authorising the carrying-out by an industrial tribunal of a preliminary consideration of any proceedings before it (a “pre-hearing review”), and
(b) for enabling such powers to be exercised in connection with a pre-hearing review as may be prescribed by the regulations.
(2) Such regulations may in particular include provision—
(a) for authorising any tribunal carrying out a pre-hearing review under the regulations to make, in circumstances specified in the regulations, an order requiring a party to the proceedings in question... to pay a deposit of an amount not exceeding £500 as a condition of continuing to participate in those proceedings or doing such other thing as may be prescribed in the regulations, and
(b) for prescribing—
(i) the manner in which the amount of any such deposit is to be determined in any particular case,
(ii) the consequences of non-payment of any such deposit, and
(iii) the circumstances in which any such deposit, or any part of it, may be refunded to the party who paid it or be paid over to another party to the proceedings.
(2A) Regulations under paragraph (1)(b), so far as relating to striking out, may not provide for striking out on a ground which does not apply outside a pre-hearing review.
(3) The Department may by order substitute for the sum specified in paragraph (2)(a) such other sum as is specified in the order.
(4) Industrial tribunal procedure regulations may also include provision for authorising an industrial tribunal to hear and determine separately any preliminary issue of a description precribed by the regulations which is raised by any case.
(5) Where a complaint is presented to an industrial tribunal under Article 145 of the Employment Rights Order (unfair dismissal) and it appears to the tribunal that the dismissal to which the complaint relates is one in respect of which (as being unlawful discrimination or harassment within the meaning of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998
(a) a complaint could be made to the Fair Employment Tribunal for Northern Ireland under Part VI of the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, or
(b) such a complaint has been made, but the proceedings under the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 have not been disposed of,
the tribunal shall not proceed further under the Employment Rights Order in relation to the complaint unless all proceedings which can be taken under the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 in respect of the dismissal have been disposed of.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1996/1921/article/11 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/industrial-tribunals-northern-ireland-order-1996/article-11
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.