Hansard

I thank all the members of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for their attentive and valuable work in scrutinising the Judicial Factors (Scotland) Bill.

The bill is a Scottish Law Commission bill: I thank the commission for its considerable work—not only on this project, but on all the other projects that it undertakes to simplify and improve our laws. I am committed to introducing bills to implement its proposals. This is the third SLC bill to be introduced in this session of Parliament, with the fourth, on the termination of commercial leases, being due shortly.

A judicial factor is a person who is appointed by the court to gather, hold, safeguard and administer property that is not being properly managed. Examples include the winding up of a partnership when the partners are unable to agree on how the partnership will operate, and when a child is due to receive funds in excess of £20,000 and/or when the child’s estate is large or complicated, which might be the case after a personal injury damages award, for instance.

If it is agreed to this afternoon, the bill will put in place an updated and comprehensive framework that will bring clarity, accessibility and efficiency to this vital area of the law. There are only about 50 judicial factors currently appointed to manage someone else’s property, and only a handful of applications for appointments are made each year. To my mind, that reflects the fact that applications are a last resort. However, despite the small numbers, for those who are involved with judicial factors in one way or another, the bill will make positive changes.

The appointment of a judicial factor to manage the property of a missing person was closely scrutinised by the DPLR Committee, and for very good reason. Although such appointments have been made in the past, they have been rare, despite 15 people in Scotland each year being declared long-term missing. There will be various reasons that are individual to each case for why an application for appointment is or is not made, but the bill will remove one potential obstacle, which is the difficulty that is caused by the outdated and complex law.

The bill aims to bring the law together in one place to make it easier for users of the legislation. Not only is that the case, but one of my amendments from stage 2 has committed the Scottish ministers to producing and publishing guidance for such an appointment. I will work with the charity Missing People and other stakeholders, including the Office of the Accountant of Court, to help to prepare that guidance.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has already suggested a number of points that should be covered in the guidance, and I will make sure that they are included. Just as important—