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, taking long-running discussions about proposals for legislative reform to the regulatory and complaints system into a new phase. Throughout the year we continued to engage with Scottish Government and other stakeholders on this issue and to make the case for reforms that make the complaints process more flexible and proportionate and to create a system that is more improvement focused.

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

Alternative Business Structures

The Law Society of Scotland is now fully approved and authorised as an Approved Regulator, but the regulatory scheme is not yet operational. We have 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 2023-24 but have no control over this. We remain as ready as possible, including having approved rule changes this year to help in implementation of our responsibilities when this is required. The action will again be carried forward into next year’s operating plan.

Other policy work

We have undertaken other policy work where it relates directly to our statutory functions. This year this included a response to the Finance and Public Administration Committee’s inquiry into the Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform programme and a submission to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee’s call for evidence on the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill. We also responded to the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal’s consultation on updates to its rules.