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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 21 January 2025

21 Jan 2025 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

Item of business

Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Brown, Siobhian SNP Ayr Watch on SPTV

Good morning. I will make a few remarks before we turn to amendment 1. We have an extraordinarily large number of amendments before us, so I intend to keep my remarks as short as possible to provide the committee with the information that members need while ensuring that we can proceed in a timely manner to deal with them all. I am happy to answer any questions that members have. I also want to thank all those who have engaged with the bill and supported the development of the amendments that I have lodged. I want to take the opportunity to note the constructive engagement that I have had, in considering all the amendments, with the Lord President and the senior judiciary, the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, the consumer panel of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the bodies that are represented on it. Draft amendments were shared with the senior judiciary, and I have reflected carefully on their comments. I note the comments of the Lord President in his letter to the committee on 23 December, in which he notes: “Our significant ... concerns have been addressed” and that “the senior judiciary are broadly content with the amendments lodged”. I also welcome the comments of the Law Society in its letter to the committee on 10 January, in which it shares that view. I hope that the committee and stakeholders are reassured by those comments and that they can support the amendments. I acknowledge that the bill has attracted differing views from stakeholders; we have had to balance those differing views as we aim to modernise the regulatory system. If the amendments that are proposed at stage 2 are agreed, the bill will achieve the right balance, by delivering the priorities of the stakeholders and a modern, more flexible regulatory system. I turn to amendments 2 and 43. The Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates and the senior judiciary raised concerns at stage 1 about the provision in the bill that conferred powers on the Scottish ministers. The Scottish Government absolutely recognises the importance of an independent legal profession and is committed to upholding that independence. The intention has been that the bill would protect the independence of the legal profession while introducing greater transparency and accountability with regard to the profession’s duty to work in the public interest. I wrote to the committee in September 2023 to say that I would lodge amendments to remove the references to the Scottish ministers that caused concern, and I confirmed that again in my response to the stage 1 report. Amendments 2 and 43 are the first of a number of amendments that remove that provision, and the committee has been provided with a list that highlights those amendments. As this is the same change throughout the whole bill, I will not repeat the reasoning in each group. Amendment 43 will remove section 5 of the bill, which would have conferred a delegated power on the Scottish ministers to amend the objectives of legal services regulation and the professional principles to which persons providing legal services should adhere. Amendment 2 is consequential to that change. Amendment 3 makes a change to section 1, removing the reference to the ministerial powers in sections 19 and 20. It is consequential on amendments to those sections that have the effect of transferring the powers under those sections from the Scottish ministers to the Lord President. Amendments 1, 4, 38 to 41 and 46 are technical amendments to clarify the language in places in part 1 of the bill. Amendment 42 adds the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal to the list in section 3(5) of named regulatory authorities to which the regulatory objectives apply. Following discussion with Scottish Mediation, amendments 44 and 45 clarify the meaning of the term “legal services” to ensure that the definition does not include alternative dispute resolution activities. I ask members to support the amendments in this group. I move amendment 1.

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Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 21 January 2025

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