Appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal are allowed on points of law only (ETA 1996 s.21 and TUPE regulations 1981 (SI 1981/1794) reg 11(10)). The same is true of appeals to the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords (or the Supreme Court as from October 2009).

This basic rule does not completely eliminate all consideration of facts as it still allows an appeal to be made on the basis that a tribunal decision was so "perverse" that no reasonable tribunal could have come to it on the facts or was so defective that justice requires the matter to be remitted back, perhaps to a differently constituted tribunal, for rehearing. However an appeal brought on the basis that the decision of an employment tribunal was "perverse" will only succeed if an overwhelming case is made out that the Employment Tribunal made a decision which no reasonable tribunal, on a proper appreciation of the evidence and the law, would have reached (see Yeboah v Crofton CA 2002 EWCA Civ 794 and notes at Employment tribunals/perverse decisions ).

The Registrar of the Appeal Tribunal vets appeals to ensure that they come within the EAT jurisdiction (Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules (SI 1993/2854) rule 3(3)). This includes preliminary consideration of whether an appeal is genuinely on a point of law or is in reality on a point of fact (in which case the EAT does not have jurisdiction). This is an important question as the EAT cannot entertain an appeal from a Tribunal decision just because it might take a different view of the facts.

See also Employment Appeal Tribunal/jurisdiction and Employment Appeal Tribunal/2008 Practice Direction on procedure .