The First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal (Chambers) (Amendment) Order 2026 is a small Ministry of Justice instrument, but it performs a necessary piece of institutional housekeeping. Its function is to complete the chamber allocation for a recent transfer of jurisdiction in telecoms-related business tenancy disputes under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. UK Parliament records show that the linked jurisdiction-conferring regulations, SI 2026/569, were laid on 4 June 2026 and come into force on 30 July 2026. (statutoryinstruments.parliament.uk)
This sits in a longer legislative chain. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 created the power to move a defined category of 1954 Act cases into the tribunal system, and the Government’s Explanatory Notes say the purpose was to allow disputes about code rights to be heard within the same courts and tribunals structure as other Electronic Communications Code cases. Sections 61 to 64 of that Act were then commenced on 7 April 2026. (legislation.gov.uk)
The category of case is narrower than the title may suggest. According to the 2022 Act notes on legislation.gov.uk, the relevant disputes concern 'subsisting agreements' in England and Wales that are still renewed through Part 2 of the 1954 Act, even though their primary purpose is to grant electronic communications code rights. In practical terms, these are older business tenancy arrangements for telecoms infrastructure where renewal and compensation questions continue to run through the 1954 Act rather than directly through the newer Code renewal route. (legislation.gov.uk)
The legal substance of those disputes is not being rewritten by this chambers order. Part 2 of the 1954 Act remains the business tenancy security of tenure regime, and the 2022 Act added special provisions on rent and compensation for code-rights renewals within that framework. The Government’s Explanatory Notes say new section 34B is intended to mirror the compensation model in paragraph 25 of the Electronic Communications Code, so site providers can recover loss or damage caused by the exercise of code rights. (legislation.gov.uk)
What the 2026 Order changes is procedure. It routes the newly transferred first-instance work into the Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal and aligns the Upper Tribunal’s Lands Chamber with that same class of dispute where a case is transferred up under tribunal procedure. That fits the existing tribunal design: the Property Chamber Rules 2013 and their Explanatory Memorandum already provide a route for appropriate Property Chamber cases to be dealt with in the Upper Tribunal. (legislation.gov.uk)
Rule 25 is the key operational provision in that route. Under the 2013 rules, a case may be transferred where it is likely to be further appealed and involves lengthy or complex evidence, an important or complex legal issue, or a large financial sum. For landlords, operators and professional advisers, that points to a more specialist forum path for the harder 1954 Act code-rights cases, rather than an ordinary court track. (legislation.gov.uk)
The date that matters in practice is 30 July 2026, when SI 2026/569 takes effect. From that point, parties dealing with the defined category of 1954 Act code-rights disputes should expect tribunal procedure from the outset, with different case management, transfer mechanics and appeal staging from standard court litigation. It is a technical change, but it alters where claims are filed, which procedural rules apply and which judges are most likely to hear the contested cases. (statutoryinstruments.parliament.uk)