Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 28 January 2025
Amendment 572 is a relatively simple amendment that would leave out section 54(7) of the bill. As drafted, section 54(7) would repeal section 12 of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007, which requires the commission to give notice in writing to complainers and practitioners of its determination to uphold or not uphold service complaints, the steps to be taken and any reasoning for its decision.
It is contrary to the principles of natural justice that the complainer and the practitioner are not provided with written notice of the commission’s decision. It seems wholly unfair and contrary to the aims of transparency and consumers’ understanding of the complaints process if people are not told what and why something has happened to their complaint.
The SLCC might opt to continue that practice anyway, but I cannot see any good reason why we would not want there to be a requirement to do that in all relevant circumstances and instances. Even if the intent is to continue to provide statements of reasons for a commission decision, not having it in statute as a requirement opens up the possibility that the commission could, at some point, decide or find a way not to provide statements of decisions if that is what it chooses to do. That would mean that complainers and practitioners would not have recourse to understand why a decision was taken and what further avenues might be open to them.
Given that I can discern no other part of the bill that places the burden on the SLCC, the most reasonable way forward would be to maintain the current provision requiring the commission to give notice. If tweaks need to be made to section 12 of the 2007 act as a result of other changes in the bill, there could be more amendments at stage 3. For the moment, it is important that the committee sends out a clear message, in line with the principles of natural justice and transparency, that some provision remains in the bill to continue providing statements of reasons for decisions.
I move amendment 572.