SLCC publishes final budget for 2018-19
The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has laid its budget for 2018-19 before the Scottish Parliament. The budget includes an increase on the legal profession’s levy of 8.5%.
Chief Executive Neil Stevenson commented, “The past few years have seen a combination of factors make a big impact on our workload. These include increasing complaint numbers and changes to our process coming out of court decisions. “
“As we highlighted in the consultation, our priority is dealing with this increased workload, including increased complaint handling times. The budget reflects that, and although we have identified efficiency savings in a number of areas, it will be necessary to increase the levy to fund increased staffing. This should ensure we’re dealing with complaints effectively and within a reasonable timescale.”
“This means an extra £30 a year for solicitors in private practice, £9 a year for in-house solicitors and £14 for advocates.”
“We are obliged by law to make sure that the levy is ‘sufficient to meet our expenditure’. This budget will allow us to do this.”
The SLCC is funded by a levy on members of the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates and the Association of Commercial Attorneys. Its budget and levy amounts are consulted on and set annually.
This year also sees the first levy set for the Law Society of Scotland as an ‘approved regulator’ of new legal businesses which can have non-solicitor ownership, and the first levies set for those businesses.