Chamber and committees

Under agenda item 4, we are considering one instrument, on which no points have been raised.

I welcome our second panel: Rachel Wood, executive director of regulation at the Law Society of Scotland, and Morag Ross KC, from the Faculty of Advocates, who is joining us online.

I remind witnesses not to worry about turning on their microphones during the meeting, because those are controlled by broadcasting. If you would like to answer a question, please raise your hand or catch the clerk’s eye. There is no need to answer every question if you do not feel the need to respond, but please feel free to follow up in writing regarding any question after the meeting, if you wish to.

We move to questions. Section 5 of the bill gives the Scottish ministers a power that would allow them to modify the regulatory objectives and professional principles for legal services that are set out in sections 2 to 4. What is your view on the delegation of that power, and its scope? Is it reasonably foreseeable that the objectives and professional principles set out in the bill will require to be added to, amended or removed over time? If so, is it your view that that should be done by primary legislation?

The delegated powers memorandum that the Scottish Government has produced states that the power is required

“to enable the Scottish Ministers to respond strategically in light of ... changing circumstances”,

and that regulations would be a more efficient way of achieving that in comparison to primary legislation.

Rachel Wood touched on consultation. A wide variety of individuals and organisations would need to be consulted, including the Lord President, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, the independent advisory panel of the commission, the Competition and Markets Authority, each category 1 and category 2 regulator, and each approved regulator of licensed providers. The bill proposes that a detailed level of consultation would take place. Do you agree that all those relevant organisations and individuals would put forward proposals and suggestions that would assist the legal profession rather than potentially having the opposite effect?

Okay, and then I will bring in Oliver Mundell for a supplementary.

Thank you. As Jeremy Balfour has no further questions, I call Oliver Mundell.

Morag, do you have anything to add?

The bill as introduced contains 21 delegated powers. We have focused on eight of them, which appear to have been the focus of comments that you have made in response to the lead committee’s call for views. As a committee, we will report on all 21 of the proposed delegated powers in our report to the lead committee. Do you have any comments on any of the other delegated powers that are contained in the bill?

Thank you for that. I note that Rachel Wood said that we would be receiving something in writing, and the committee certainly looks forward to that.

As colleagues have no more questions, I thank Morag Ross KC and Rachel Wood for their extremely useful and helpful evidence this morning. The committee might well follow things up in writing afterwards if we have any further questions.

With that, I move the committee into private session.

Under agenda item 3, we are considering three instruments. An issue has been raised on the following instrument.

The instrument makes amendments to the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 to ensure that certain types of payments, largely based on compensation or redress schemes, are disregarded for the purposes of calculating entitlement to council tax reduction. The instrument also makes provision to ensure that the capital of a person who is liable to pay council tax has no impact on their entitlement to second adult rebate.

In correspondence with the Scottish Government, the committee asked whether the Government considers it appropriate to insert the new paragraph 46 under part 5 of schedule 4 of the 2021 regulations, under the heading “Payments”, as the amendment does not concern a payment; it concerns the whole of a person’s capital. The Scottish Government recognised that it would be helpful to the reader to insert a new part number and heading into schedule 4 of the 2021 regulations at the next available opportunity, which it anticipates will be February 2024, when other substantive amendments to the 2021 regulations are expected to be made.

Does the committee wish to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground, in that it inserts under the heading “Payments”, a new paragraph that concerns the whole of a person’s capital rather than a payment?

Members indicated agreement.