Our outreach and oversight work

Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill

The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill was introduced in Parliament in April 2023. Original proposals, stemming from an independent review, suggested more radical reform of regulatory structures and new legislation. We supported this approach. However, we have welcomed the opportunity for more limited modernisation of structures and processes within this Bill.

We submitted written evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee and attended the committee on 14 November to provide oral evidence. We also provided further information in writing to the committee in response to their questions and to evidence from other organisations.

The committee’s Stage 1 Report, published in February 2024, recommended, by a majority, that Parliament agree to the general principles of the Bill, and supported many of the proposals we have advocated. The Minister responded to the report with further details on the issues raised by the Committee. Later that month the Scottish Parliament debated the proposed reforms and voted in favour of the general principles of the Bill at stage 1. We provided a briefing to MSPs in advance of the debate.

Since then, we’ve been working with officials to consider amendments to the Bill to address some of the issues identified in the drafting. However, stage 2 consideration of the Bill has not yet commenced and is now significantly delayed until early 2025, meaning the overall timescale for the Bill’s passage has slipped considerably.

In parallel we have started initial planning for implementation of the proposed changes to ensure we are in a strong position to bring key provisions into operation as swiftly as possible once the Bill is passed.

Given the potential for significant changes to our legislative framework, and the impact of this across our business, this work continues to be a key focus for our Board and executive team.

Alternative Business Structures

The Law Society of Scotland was fully approved and authorised as an Approved Regulator in December 2021, but the regulatory scheme is not yet operational. The SLCC has been preparing for the introduction of ABS since the Act was passed in 2010. This preparation needs to be updated each year and comes at significant cost to the organisation each time.

At the time of writing, we are again being told the scheme may go live in 2024/25 but have no control over this. We remain as ready as possible to implement our responsibilities when this is required. The action will again be carried forward into next year’s operating plan.

Consumer Duty

The SLCC is considered a relevant public authority in the Consumer Scotland Act 2020 (relevant public authorities) regulations 2024.This means that we must meet the four requirements of the Consumer Scotland Act 2020:

• When making decisions of a strategic nature, have regard to the impact those decisions have on consumers
• When making decisions of a strategic nature, have regard to the desirability of reducing harm to consumers
• Publication of information about the steps taken to meet the duty
• Having regard to the Consumer Scotland guidance on how to meet the consumer duty.

This requirement came into force on 1 April 2024. We have met all of the requirements of the 2020 Act during this year. Our Board discussed our approach to meeting the duty, including considering and feeding back on the draft guidance for senior decision makers. We will apply this approach to relevant decisions taken by the Board in the coming year on a test and learn basis.

Other policy work

We have undertaken other policy work where it relates directly to our statutory functions. That includes engaging with stakeholders across the legal services sector, other regulated sectors, consumer group and advice agencies.

We take part in the Consumer Scotland Consumer Network alongside other ombudsmen, advice bodies and regulators. This has proved a helpful forum for sharing expertise and identifying key stakeholders to help inform different areas of our work.

We provided input and feedback to the CMA’s investigation into unregulated legal services, including commenting on draft guidance for the sector and guides for consumers.

Sharing information on our work and achievements

We use our website, articles and social media channels to share more information about our work and to help shape the debate on complaints and regulation. This includes regular articles on issues relevant to the public in the Scotsman newspaper as well as articles targeting the profession in the legal press. This year we started sharing a quarterly video blog with our Chief Executive to highlight key aspects of our work and to bring a human face to the organisation.