Is what the SoS is providing actual evidence (ie, about the facts in issue), or is it submissions (arguments about the correct interpretation of the facts)?
An appeal to the Commissioners is only on a point of law, and is confiend to the facts that were before the Tribunal. It is not open to the parties to bring in new evidence such as medical evidence or witness statemtns at this stage. A Commissioner can make his/her own findings on the facts which were before the Tribunal, if they think the factual evidence is clear enough. Commissioners can also call for the parties to provide arguments to them.
What most legal appeals are about is what the law is, that should ahve been applied. An appeal could be on the basis that the wrong legal principles - statutes, regulations and case-law - have been applied to the case. Or it can be that the Tribunal's interpretation of the facts is so unreasonable that a Tribunal properly applying its mind to the facts should never have arrived at it. Or it may simply be that the Tribunal's explanation for their findings of fact is inadequate (probably the commonest ground for a successful appeal). The usual outcome of an appeal is not for the Commissioner to make his own decision, but to set the Tribunal's decision aside and send the appeal back to a new Tribunal to rehear it. At that stage new medical evidence, etc, could be introduced.
However in complex cases it is common for a commissioner to form a preliminary view of the main issues and, if he feels the submissions of the parties don't deal adequately with the legal problems involved, ask them to make further submissions, often with relevant case law. If this is what the SoS is doing - refining the legal arguments - then that is perfectly in order. You may find new cases being quoted at you, but that's fine.
I have to say the distinction between what is a fidning of fact and what is a legal principle is one of those things that law students get dinned into them very early on in their legal education, and it's easy to forget that not everyone has had that curious experience. When I started, my tutor said to our class "By Christmas we'll have you all thinking like lawyers - it's a pity really, you'll never look at anything quite the same way again"
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