Meeting of the Parliament 20 December 2023
I absolutely agree with Bob Doris and I pay tribute to him for giving voice to the victims of McClure’s and inviting them to Parliament to speak to MSPs. I absolutely agree with his comment and I urge the Scottish Government to act to support those people.
The minister said that the bill will make things better for spouses and civil partners of those who die without a will. It was highlighted that work needed to be carried out on ensuring better protection for cohabitees—people who have not formalised their relationships. With societal changes, that is becoming more and more common. There are people who have been together for a long period, raised families and had grandchildren together but who do not have a will and are not protected in any way.
In that vein, I encourage the Government to ensure that people are aware that they should have wills and a power of attorney. Families need to know what to expect, and they need to be protected when somebody dies. That is not for someone at the end of life—the moment that someone has dependants or is in a relationship with someone who they wish to protect, they need to set those things in order so that their loved ones can better represent their wishes, should the worst happen.
I finish by paying tribute to the Scottish Law Commission. It does a power of valuable work in looking at the law and looking to update it. Much of its work goes unnoticed, and often it does not come before Parliament when it should. It is timely that the bill has come before us, but more of the SLC’s work needs to be looked at. As a Parliament, we need to look at how we deal with the SLC’s work to ensure that it gets the attention that it deserves and that our law remains up to date.