“Occasionally appeals tribunals and commissioners have found that the regulation that has been used to make a decision is not a regulation that has been made lawfully. In these situations, the regulation is said to be made ‘ultra vires.’ This translates as ‘beyond the scope of its powers.’
The courts, child support commissioners and tribunals, as well as the CSA itself and JobCentre Plus are all under a duty to follow the law. In some cases, however, the domestic law may not be entirely compatible with European law. Decisions that are made contrary to European legislation are wrong in law. In practice, the law of the European Court of Human Rights is more likely to be applicable in child support cases than European Union law. In the case of EU law relating to the equality of men and women regarding social security matters, commissioners have determined that this does not apply in the realm of child maintenance issues.
In terms of human rights law (ECHR), the domestic courts are required to interpret this in so far as is possible to do so. Courts, and child support commissioners, are not able to override the European law in order to ‘fit’ with the domestic law. If EU and UK law are found to be incompatible with one another, the courts can declare this incompatibility”.
