Our work on policy and reform

The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025 was introduced in Parliament in April 2023, passed on 20 May 2025 and became an Act on 27 June 2025.

Original proposals, stemming from an independent review, suggested more radical reform of regulatory structures and new legislation and we supported this approach. However, we campaigned in support of the Act’s measures and have welcomed the opportunity for more limited modernisation of structures and processes.

We submitted written evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee at Stage 2 of the Bill. We worked closely with the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and her officials to make further improvements to the Bill at Stage 2 and Stage 3.

We shared a briefing with MSPs in advance of the Stage 3 debate and met with a number of members to explain our views on different aspects of the Bill.

In parallel we started initial planning for implementation of the proposed changes to ensure we were in a strong position to bring key provisions into operation as swiftly as possible.

Given the significant changes to our legislative framework, and the impact of this across our business, this will continue to be a key focus for our Board and executive team over the coming year.

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 know the Society has confirmed that further work to implement ABS has now been deferred for the next two years.

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 have also taken part in the Scottish Government’s Working Group on Child Welfare Reporters.

We provided input to the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal’s consultation on its standard of proof.

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. We have continued to share regular video blogs with our Chief Executive and other staff to highlight key aspects of our work and to bring a human face to the organisation.

From 1 April 2024 we have been subject to the Consumer Duty which places a duty on public bodies in Scotland to consider the impact their strategic decisions will have on consumers including reducing harm.

In line with these duties, we published an impact assessment on the development of our 2025/26 Budget and Operating Plan.

We will continue to identify decisions where the duty should apply and draw learning from this first assessment in using the duty to inform our decision.