Hansard

It is my pleasure to speak on behalf of Scottish Labour in support of the Government’s approach to the Succession (Scotland) Bill and the amendments that have been presented today. It is right that I should thank Nigel Don and the other members of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for the work that they have completed on behalf of this Parliament with such speed and such attention to detail. Indeed, as someone who is not on that committee, today’s debate helped me to understand some of the complexities that the committee dealt with and the reasons why certain elements were presented at the last minute. I now understand more clearly the approach that was taken.

A number of speakers have talked about the technical nature of this piece of legislation. I am grateful to John Scott for saying that, although the bill has been described as technical, it is, nonetheless, vitally important, bearing in mind the impact that the issue has on people’s lives. When I first received the paperwork for the bill, the issues seemed arcane, distant and hardly relevant to day-to-day living. For that reason, I think that the Law Society and the Scottish Law Commission are to be complimented on the fact that they have maintained the pressure on the Government and this Parliament to deal with the bill. For six years, they have paid attention and waited patiently.

I have dealt with a will in the past 18 months as an executor and—because I am an only child—as the person who benefited from it. It should have been a simple process that I should have been able to cope with easily. However, even though there was no conflict involved in the process, I found it anything but simple and easy to deal with. The extremely technical issues that were described this afternoon are vitally important when people are trying to deal with something that they do not want to deal with and are seeking guidance on how to deal with it fairly and with equity, particularly when competing interests are involved.

We all know families that have been split irretrievably because of the way in which someone’s estate has been dealt with. The bill does the best that it can to avoid such splits in the future by offering direct guidance on the way in which wills and matters of succession should be dealt with.

The approach that has been offered on the validity of wills following the breakdown of relationships through divorce, dissolution and annulment is absolutely vital, particularly given the complex lives that we now live and the kinds of relationships that we create. I therefore welcome the approach that the committee has endorsed and that we are debating today.

I also note that, like buses in the city, one bill comes along and, before we know it, we are suggesting that there should be a second bill. It is important that we have had something of a superficial examination, at speed, of many of the issues that have cropped up and that the committee has done its best, on behalf of the Parliament, to deliver. However, in the next session, we need to check that the delivered outcomes are what we wanted and that measures to achieve any additional outcomes are included in a bill to be introduced in that session.

I will not go through the detail of the bill, as it has been rehearsed by other members with more clarity than I could bring, but I welcome the protection for trustees and executors, which has been commented on. I also think that the approach to succession forfeiture is much healthier than it was previously.

I commend the committee’s approach and reassure the minister that we will support the bill when it comes to the vote.