New UNCRC Tribunal Rules Laid

Date: 23rd February 2026
Category: General measures of implementation

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The instruments follow judicial review proceedings raised in May 2025 by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland (CYPCS) against Scottish Ministers concerning the absence of tribunal rules to ensure UNCRC compatibility questions could be formally notified. Following a procedural hearing, Ministers committed to draft, consult on and lay the necessary rules within a specified timetable, and the present instruments arise from that process.

Tribunals routinely make decisions affecting children - including in areas such as education, mental health and children’s hearings - so their procedures are a key part of how children’s UNCRC rights are realised in practice. The newly laid instruments amend rules across different tribunals so that UNCRC compatibility issues can be raised within proceedings and, where relevant, formally notified to the Lord Advocate, the CYPCS and the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC).

This is intended to strengthen access to justice by making sure there are clear steps for children’s rights arguments to be raised and, where relevant, shared with CYPCS, SHRC and Scottish Government and considered in tribunal cases.

The rules are due to come into force on 1 April 2026, subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

 

•          Children’s Hearings

•          Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland

•          First-tier Tribunal for Scotland

•          Upper Tribunal for Scotland

•          Local Taxation Chamber

 

Further background on the judicial review and the Government’s commitment to make these rules