Chamber and committees

Thank you, Clare.

Is Fulton MacGregor content with those responses? Would you like to come back in, Fulton? I see that he is content.

That concludes our formal business this morning. I thank all of our witnesses for joining us and for playing such a valuable part in our work as scrutineers. Once again, I thank them very much for their attendance. I hope that the rest of the day is enjoyable.

We will now move into private session.

Meghan, did you want to come in on this issue?

We will pause that for now. I will bring you back in after Meghan Gallacher.

Thank you for answering that rather cheeky question, minister. We are all well aware that the initial stages of the bill did not happen on your watch, as it were. Thank you for taking that question regardless.

I think that we all understand that reform is difficult for any organisation. As I sit here, I have been imagining the uproar that would probably be caused among members, let alone anyone else, if there was a bill to reform the Scottish Parliament, and we have only a couple of decades of history. I understand that change and reform are difficult, especially when they are applied to a highly regarded legal profession that has been there for hundreds and hundreds of years.

I am grateful that you have taken the time to give evidence today and that you have written to us. I will take you up on your offer to communicate with us fully, because we wish to do our job correctly and make sure that the reforms are robust and proportionate. In the light of that, I will also take you up on the offer you made in your opening remarks when you mentioned your letter to me. You said that you could go through the sections in the annex and offer a bit more information on them. That would be helpful for our scrutiny, so could you do that, minister?

I am sorry to interrupt you, minister, but we have that documentation in front of us. In the interest of time, I will stop you, as that letter has been published and it is available to the public. I simply wanted to give you the opportunity to add anything further that you wanted to say.

I just indicated to Maggie Chapman that I wanted to come in on the complaints issue as well, to get a bit more information.

We heard evidence from the SL—I can never remember initials and I do not think that they are a good thing, as they exclude people—from the SLCC regarding the powers that it has. On the one hand it welcomed the changes, but it also argued for more powers. What consideration was given to giving the SLCC more powers?

Okay. Leanna, did you want to come in?

We agree. Thank you. We will write to the Scottish Government to that effect.

That concludes consideration of the UK statutory instrument. I thank the minister and her officials for their attendance. We will now suspend briefly to allow a changeover of supporting officials for our next agenda item. Thank you.

Our second agenda item is our final evidence session on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill.

I again welcome to the meeting Siobhian Brown, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety. I also welcome her supporting officials from the Scottish Government: Jamie Wilhelm is legal services regulation reform manager in the justice directorate, and Leanna MacLarty is a solicitor in the legal directorate. Thank you for joining us this morning. I refer members to papers 2 and 3. I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.

Good morning and welcome to the 26th meeting of 2023 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received no apologies this morning.

Our first agenda item is consideration of a type 1 consent notification for the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments (Saving Provision) Regulations 2023. This is a proposed United Kingdom statutory instrument on which the UK Government is seeking the Scottish Government’s consent to legislate in an area of devolved competence. On 9 November 2023, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety notified the committee of the UK SI. The committee’s role is to decide whether it agrees with the Scottish Government’s proposal to consent to the UK Government in the manner that it has indicated.

I welcome to the meeting Siobhian Brown, who is the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, and her supporting officials. Simon Stockwell is head of family law policy and Stephanie Smith is a senior policy adviser on courts and tribunals. Both are from the Scottish Government’s justice directorate. Good morning and thank you for joining us.

I refer members to paper 1 and I invite the minister to make a brief opening statement.