Chamber and committees

Okay. Thank you very much.

Agenda item 4 is consideration of two instruments subject to the affirmative procedure, on which no points have been raised.

Is the committee content with those instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

The instrument amends the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to add Denmark to the list of countries whose citizens are eligible to stand for election as members of a local authority in Scotland if they have leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom.

Under section 28(2) of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, instruments subject to the negative procedure must be laid at least 28 days before they come into force, not counting recess periods of more than four days.?The instrument breaches that requirement as it was laid on 26 March 2024 and comes into force on 7 May 2024.??

In correspondence with the Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government explained that that breach had occurred as it could not lawfully make regulations to implement the treaty until after the UK Parliament completed its scrutiny process, which ended on 25 March. The treaty is expected to come into force on 7 May, at which point the provision in the instrument must be in place to comply with the UK’s international obligations.

As the instrument has not been laid at least 28 counting days before it came into force as required by section 28(2) of the 2010 act, does the committee wish to draw it to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (j) for failure to comply with laying requirements???

Members indicated agreement.

With that, I move the committee into private.

We also received evidence from the Faculty of Procurators of Caithness. In its submission, it states:

“We are firmly of the view that whatever other provisions may be made, the Judicial Factor should be wholly independent of the Law Society of Scotland, and there should be explicit prohibition of any current officer or employee of the Law Society of Scotland being appointed as the Judicial Factor”.

Do you agree with that suggestion?

We move on to section 4 of the bill, under which the main qualification that is required for appointment as a judicial factor is that the court considers a person “suitable” for that role. In response to the committee’s call for views, some respondents, such as Missing People, supported that approach. Others wanted the bill to be more prescriptive. Propertymark, for example, wanted professional qualifications to be specified. Did the commission consider an approach that would involve specifying in statute that professional qualifications would be required for some circumstances in which judicial factors were appointed, but not others?

The next item of business is to decide whether to take items 5, 6 and 7 in private. Is the committee content to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting in 2024 of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. I remind everyone to switch off or put to silent mobile phones and other electronic devices.

The first item of business is a declaration of interests. In accordance with section 3 of the code of conduct, I invite Tim Eagle MSP to declare any interests that are relevant to the remit of the committee.

Is the committee content with the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.