Chamber and committees

Thank you—that is helpful. Do any colleagues want to come in on that point? No.

There is, yes. I believe that Meghan Gallacher would like to come in after that.

Thank you.

I will move on to the substantive question for this item. Is the committee content that the provisions that are set out in the notification should be made in the proposed UK statutory instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Are members content?

Members indicated agreement.

That is great. That brings us to the end of this evidence session. I thank the minister and her officials very much for attending.

We will move into private session to consider the remaining items on our agenda.

That is fine. I am content with that.

I believe that our deadline for stage 1 consideration is 23 February. The committee would be interested to know where you think that you will be regarding the amendments by then.

Oh, I was too quick there. I will bring Maggie back in.

The other question was about the Legal Services Board. Lord Ericht mentioned the different system for England and Wales. Thank you for explaining that. The evidence from Chris Kenny was that there was no evidence that independent regulation has damaged the independence of the legal profession in England and Wales. What is your view on that?

Thank you very much. Before I bring in my committee members, I will kick us off.

Both from our previous panel—I do not know whether you heard them—and also in written evidence that we have received, we have heard that your review was “fundamentally flawed” in its

“premise that the legal profession in Scotland regulates itself”.

That suggestion has been totally refuted. Why do you think that your review has had that response?

Thank you. That question was just to get us going and I would now like to bring in Maggie Chapman.