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Amendment of Legal Services Bill
18/03/2010
Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing announced today that he will bring forward an amendment to the Legal Services (Scotland) Bill following representations from the Law Society of Scotland.
The amendment will seek to remove provisions that give Ministers powers to regulate on the appointment of lay members to the Council of the Law Society of Scotland.
Mr Ewing said the Bill will allow lay members to be appointed to the Council of the Law Society of Scotland for the first time, reflecting the Law Society of Scotland's important statutory duty to promote the public interest as well as the interests of the profession.
Mr Ewing said:
"The power of Scottish Ministers to make regulations specifying the proportion of lay members and the criteria for selection was intended as a fall-back, only to be used in the unlikely event that there would be a need to resolve any disagreements regarding the proportion of lay members.
"Following representations from the Law Society of Scotland, in which it re-affirmed its commitment to lay appointments, I no longer consider it necessary for Scottish Ministers to have this fall-back power.
"Therefore, I intend to bring forward an amendment at Stage 2 of the Legal Services (Scotland) Bill to delete section 92(4), (5) and (6) of the Bill."