Chair's Foreword

We’re pleased to see the legislation passed and welcome the improvements it will deliver for people using legal services in Scotland. Looking at the many changes the legislation brings, it’s clear the SLCC is being given more flexibility and additional powers, not least in relation to the valuable contribution made by our independent Consumer Panel. We are committed to meeting Parliament’s expectations of us, and the Board is already working to ensure we can implement those changes as swiftly as possible.

Throughout the year the Board has also worked to ensure that the external scrutiny of our work and our own governance is fit for purpose, as we looked ahead to delivering whatever the new legislation brought us. We commissioned an independent governance review to hold ourselves to the highest standards and we are now implementing its findings. We also approved a new framework agreement with Scottish Government which updates our arrangements and recognises both our role as a public body and our independence as an adjudicative body.

We drew on helpful learning from other members of the Ombudsman Association to inform our input to the reform debate, so we were also pleased to submit our application for re-validation as a member, which brings additional external scrutiny as well as significant learning and support for our organisation.

This report, and our last annual report, highlight the specific issues the organisation has faced over recent years in dealing with the fallout of a single firm failure and the resulting surge in complaints and support needed for those affected. That has been a defining feature of our work in recent years, and its impact continues to be felt within the organisation and beyond. This year, in order to draw learning while memories were fresh, we concluded a lessons learnt exercise which identified areas which worked well, and others which didn’t, to inform our approach in future.

That approach to rapid learning and improvement will continue to serve us well as we enter this new phase. As ever, my thanks go to our staff team, who have stepped up to every challenge with professionalism, expertise and enthusiasm. My thanks also go to our Board for its ongoing commitment to strong governance, agility and ambition. We are excited about what lies ahead and the increasingly positive contribution we can make to public confidence in the legal sector in Scotland.