Copyright Tribunal "small merger announced: not much change"

The UK Government has just announced its intention to merge the Copyright Tribunal with the Tribunals Service. The announcement explains:

"As part of its wider commitment to increasing the accountability of public bodies, reducing theirnumber and cost, and handing power and ownership back to local communities, the Government is keen to amalgamate as many Tribunals as possible within the Tribunals Service, which was created to provide a unified administration for the tribunals system.

The Copyright Tribunal will benefit from being served by this specialist organisation and from being seen to be part of the judicial system. It will retain the necessary technical expertise. Copyright Tribunal users should see little or no disruption to its operations.

A timetable for the move has not been set".