The Minister of Economy and Labour told the House on Monday that there was no backlog of cases before the Immigrations Appeal Tribunal.

“There is no huge backlog of appeals and it will be incorrect to put that notion out there in the public that that is the case,” Jason Hayward said.

Opposition Leader Jarion Richardson questioned how often the body met, claiming it had not been meeting and that it faced a backlog of cases.

Mr Hayward replied that the tribunal meets “on an ad hoc basis” as appeals were submitted. He noted three matters placed before the tribunal last year. He added that one had closed, while two remained open “because of the applicants being unresponsive”.

Last year, $25,000 was spent on the tribunal and a similar amount has been set aside in the Budget this year for the body.

“They only get paid as they meet,” Mr Hayward told the House.

“We do not know how many appeals we will have during the adjudication process,” he said. “What we don’t want is justice denied or justice being impeded.”

During the debate, Mr Richardson made reference once more to the $25,000 allocated to the tribunal in the Budget, noting that the amount was unchanged.

Mr Hayward maintained that one cannot “anticipate how many cases will go before the tribunal. I don’t want anyone to think that that board is dormant.”

During the exchanges on the issue, the Opposition Leader asked when decisions made by the tribunal would be published.

Decisions of the body have not been published since 2015, despite 2016 and 2017 records being ready for publication, he said.

Mr Hayward asked whether the question was relevant to the funding of the body.

Under legislation approved in 2011, the independent tribunal was formed to make final decisions on grievances relating to Bermuda status, permanent residency and work permits.

Last March, the Senate was told that the Government had abandoned publishing key decisions made by the tribunal, including rulings.

The tribunal’s start of work was delayed 18 months due to lack of governing regulations, which were not gazetted until March 2013.