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Listen
Dear Colleague
LAW REFORM (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISION) (SCOTLAND) ACT 1990 SECTIONS 25 -29
I am writing to seek your views on the terms of the enclosed draft guidance for professional or other bodies on making an application under section 25-29 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990. If you decide to take part in this consultation, please refer to the important information contained in the Annex to this letter.
Sections 25 to 29 of the 1990 Act, which will be commenced early in 2007, provide for rights of audience and rights to conduct litigation in the Supreme Courts to be granted to members of professional or other bodies, subject to the approval in each case of a draft scheme embodying certain safeguards such as training programmes and indemnity insurance. The legislation covers in some detail the:
- provisions to be contained in draft schemes
- consideration of applications
- exercising rights to conduct litigation and rights of audience
- surrender of rights to conduct litigation and rights of audience
- revocation of rights granted under section 26
- the advisory and supervisory functions of the Chairman of the Office of Fair Trading
- investigatory powers of the Chairman of the Office of Fair Trading
- review of rules approved
- publication of applications under section 25.
Although not a requirement of the legislation, it has been decided that guidance will be produced as an aid to potential applicant bodies by making clear:
- the statutory framework
- the issues that will need to be addressed in an application and draft scheme; and
The attached draft guidance is the product of informal consultation with a range of interested bodies and I am very grateful to everyone who has given their time and attention so generously.
I would be interested in any comment you care to make about the draft guidance but in particular would like to hear your views about the:
- description of the issues to be covered in draft schemes;
- application process as described; and
- any issues you feel are missing from the draft guidance that would benefit applicant bodies in developing their draft schemes.
It would be helpful if you could let me have your views by 10 January 2007. Your response should be sent to: Mrs Alison Mason, Scottish Executive Justice Department, 2 WR, St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG, or e-mail Alison.Mason@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.
Yours faithfully
ANDREW DICKSON
Head of Access to Justice Division
ANNEX
We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which parts of the guidance document you are responding to as this will aid our analysis of the responses received.
This consultation, and all other Scottish Executive consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.
The Scottish Executive now has an email alert system for consultations ( SEconsult: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/seconsult.aspx). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult complements, but in no way replaces SE distribution lists, and is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all SE consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.
Handling your response
We need to know how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are happy for your response to be made public. Please complete and return the Respondent Information Form attached to this letter as this will ensure that we treat your response appropriately. If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.
All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Executive are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.
Next steps in the process
Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public (see the attached Respondent Information Form), these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library and on the Scottish Executive consultation web pages. We will check all responses where agreement to publish has been given for any potentially defamatory material before logging them in the library or placing them on the website. You can make arrangements to view responses by contacting the SE Library on 0131 244 4565. Responses can be copied and sent to you, but a charge may be made for this service.
What happens next ?
Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process in spring 2007 and issue the guidance document when Sections 25-29 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions)(Scotland) Act 1990 are commenced.
Comments and complaints
If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the contact details provided.
RESPONDENT INFORMATION FORM
CONSULTATION ON GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS FOR RIGHTS OF AUDIENCE
Please complete the details below and return it with your response. This will help ensure we handle your response appropriately. Thank you for your help.
CONSULTATIONS SENT TO:
Association of Commercial Attorneys
Bar Council
Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
Conveners of Justice 1 and Justice 2 Committees, Scottish Parliament
Department of Constitutional Affairs
Faculty of Advocates
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland
Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys
Law Society of England and Wales
Law Society of Northern Ireland
Law Society of Scotland
Northern Ireland Court Service
Office of Fair Trading
Scottish Consumer Council
Scottish Court Service
Scottish Law Commission
Scottish Legal Aid Board
Scottish Legal Services Ombudsman
Scottish Parliament Information Centre
Sheriffs' Association
Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers
Society of Sheriff Court Auditors
Society of Solicitor Advocates
Library copies
A number of interested individuals
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