Westminster
Data availableLondon
40
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
46
appeals registered, 2025 (official DfE figure)
Data available. At least one Freedom of Information response gives real, extractable figures on tribunal appeals or outcomes for this council.
This council says it doesn't track this. In its FOI response, Westminster told the requester it does not categorise SEND tribunal appeals as simply "won" or "lost" — most are resolved by consent order rather than a contested ruling. See why that's true almost everywhere.
Thinking about appealing, or partway through it? These are free, independent sources of advice — not run by this site, and not run by any council.
- Westminster Information, Advice, and Support Service (IASS) — this council's own free SEND information, advice and support service. Every council is legally required to fund one, at arm's length from itself · 0207 641 5355.
- IPSEA — Free, independent legal advice on SEN law — including EHC plans and tribunal appeals.
- SOS!SEN — Free helpline and 1:1 advice specifically on preparing a SEND tribunal appeal.
- Coram Children's Legal Centre — Free education law advice line, including SEN appeals and EHC plan reviews.
- GOV.UK: appeal an EHC plan decision — The official government guide to the appeals process itself — who can appeal, mediation, costs.
Estimated outcome breakdown
Estimated, not reported
Resolved before hearing — 33 (73.3%)
Contested, council lost — 8 (17.8%)
Contested, council won — 2 (4.4%)
Partially split — 2 (4.4%)
This council's own answer doesn't give a usable outcome breakdown. This estimate applies the pooled England-wide outcome rate (no regional sample was large enough to trust on its own) to this council's own real, officially-published appeal volume for 2025 (46 appeals) — see how estimates work.
Freedom of Information responses
Response dated 27 January 2025, ref 38398697. For Q3 (appeals registered/type breakdown): 'SEND first tier tribunal appeals information is collated and published by central government. It can be accessed [gov.uk tribunal statistics links]' -- no Westminster-specific counts given. On the B/F breakdown specifically: 'Appeals to the tribunal combine B and F appeals. Whilst the details of an appeal are held by the Council on each pupil file, checking would take a minimum of 60mins per file... Collating the information for the current year alone would exceed the 18 hours threshold and is therefore exempt.' Q4/Q5 (cases defended / won-lost): 'This information is not collated or reported by the council as it is published by central government.' Q6 (internal legal hours): 'The council's legal team does not deal with SEND appeals.' Q7 (external legal support 2019-2024): 'No.'
Caveat: No Westminster-specific appeal counts, type breakdown, or win/loss figures are given anywhere in this letter -- every quantitative tribunal question is answered either by pointing to published DfE/tribunal statistics or refused under the s12 cost limit. The only genuine council-specific facts obtained are: no external legal support was engaged, and the council's central legal team does not handle SEND appeals directly.