Chamber and committees

I have a question on section 61, which is on the alteration of trust purposes in family trusts, which we have dabbled in slightly already.

Section 61 says that after such a private trust has been in existence for 25 years, the Court of Session will have the power to alter the trust’s purposes—its aims, objectives and so on. A shorter minimum period can be specified in the legal document that creates a particular trust.

In the committee’s call for views, six of the 12 respondents who commented on section 61 said that they thought that 25 years is too long. I do not want to go too far, but Alice Pringle was one of the respondents who suggested that, as was Anderson Strathern, among a number of others. The Faculty of Advocates said that

“The imposition of such a lengthy period ... is notable.”

Section 61 gives the power to apply to the court to alter the trust purposes of a family trust. The views on the 25-year restriction have been mixed and many respondents have said that 25 years is too long. Are you satisfied with that time period?

As soon as that.

Thank you, convener. How about injecting a wee bit of excitement into the morning and having a couple of questions about Scottish income tax administration? That is always something to keep you on your toes.

The committee is already familiar with the service level agreement between the Scottish Government and HMRC. It is publicly available, reviewed annually and changed as necessary. Are the terms of reference and the minutes of meetings of the board publicly available? That was wondered and the question was asked, and the answer that was given to us was that there were no details of the income tax board or minutes in the public domain. Why is there no publicly available information on the Scottish income tax board? Would it be possible to publish details about agenda items and the minutes from Scottish income tax board meetings?

That is perfectly reasonable. That will happen this tax year—is that right?

In the interim, would it be possible for the committee to receive by correspondence a summary of issues covered by the board? The Finance and Public Administration Committee has such an arrangement and it receives a summary letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance when the quadrilateral meetings of UK finance ministers occur. Could that sort of correspondence be introduced to cover the period between now and when the minutes are published?

I seem to have been successful this morning—I mean, I know that you did it, and not me!

That is admirable transparency. Thank you. Does Jonathan Athow have anything to add?

That is very important and it is a good point for us, as the primary committee on the bill, to look into.

That is interesting.

In their responses to the committee’s call for views, Gillespie Macandrew LLP and the Law Society of Scotland say that the circumstances that are covered by the grounds in section 6—especially the ground

“unfit to carry out the duties of a trustee”—

should be clarified. I know that Yvonne Evans made some comments on that. Section 6 of the bill sets out various grounds on which the courts can remove a trustee. Are the circumstances that are necessary for establishing the grounds clear enough, or is further statutory guidance necessary? What more detail, if any, would you like to be added?