Chamber and committees

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Published: 29 September 2026

8th Report, 2026 (Session 7)

Introduction

At its meeting on 29 September 2026, the Committee considered the following instruments under its remit and agreed to draw them to the attention of the Parliament:
- The Council Tax Reduction (Miscellaneous Amendment) (No. 2) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/259); and
- The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/258 (C.25)).

The Committee's recommendations in relation to these instruments are set out in the next section of this report.

The Committee also determined that, in terms of its remit, it did not need to draw the Parliament's attention to the instruments in the "No points raised" section of the report.

The Council Tax Reduction (Miscellaneous Amendment) (No. 2) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/259)

This instrument amends the criteria for entitlement to a reduction in Council Tax.

The Committee asked the Scottish Government whether the title of this instrument should have been “…(Scotland) (No. 2)...” rather than “… (No. 2) (Scotland)…”, in line with standard practice.

The Scottish Government accepted this point and advised that they do not intend to take any corrective action because the legal effect of the instrument is unaffected.

The Committee also asked about Regulation 3(3)(c), which amends the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (“2021 Regulations”) so that that the following payments are disregarded when calculating an applicant’s finances for the purpose of assessing their entitlement to a reduction in Council Tax:
“any payment made under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme established by the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023.”

This is an Act of the Oireachtas of the Republic of Ireland. It is unusual for an SSI to refer to legislation of other countries. Once this provision has been inserted into the 2021 Regulations there will be nothing in those Regulations to indicate that this reference is to an Irish Act. The instrument inserts equivalent text into the 2012 Regulations (regulation 2), and in this place there is a footnote identifying the Act as an Act of the Oireachtas and giving its number and year. The Committee asked whether the same footnote should appear in the text inserted by regulation 3(3)(c).

The Scottish Government responded that while it is not standard practice to repeat a footnote for second references to the same legislation on the same page, the Scottish Government acknowledged that this is an unusual case and that in these circumstances it will insert the footnote by correction slip.

The lead committee for this instrument is the Social Justice, Housing and Local Government Committee.

The Committee draws this instrument to the attention of the Parliament under the general reporting ground for failure to follow standard drafting practice in the title of the instrument. The Committee is content that corrective action would be inappropriate.

The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2026 (SSI 2026/258 (C.25))

This instrument brings various provisions of the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Act 2026 into force in stages, on 1 October 2026 and 1 January 2027.

The Committee asked the Scottish Government whether, in relation to the commencement of section 16(2) and section 64, certain definitions including “family group decision-making services” should also have been commenced.

The Scottish Government responded that it does not consider it was legally necessary to commence the relevant definition provisions in order to enable the Scottish Ministers to comply with the consultation requirements brought into force by the instrument. However, they acknowledged that not commencing the definition of “family group decision-making services” for the purposes of section 16(2) resulted in an inconsistency in its drafting approach.

The Scottish Government further stated that the definition of “family group decision-making services” should be commenced for the purposes of section 64. They advised that they intend to commence the definition in the next commencement instrument for the Act, and that this would ensure that the definition applies for all purposes, including the consultation requirement.

The Committee draws the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground, on the basis of the inconsistent approach taken to the commencement of definitions.

The Committee welcomes that the Scottish Government intends to address this in the next commencement SSI for the Act, which will be laid at the next opportunity.

The Committee also asked the Scottish Government whether a reference in column 3 of the schedule, in relation to section 18(2), should be to section 73A(2) rather than section 73A(3) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

In their response, the Scottish Government accepted that reference to section 73A(3) was wrong and advised that they intend to correct this by correction slip.

The Committee welcomes that the Scottish Government intends to address the point concerning section 73A(2) by correction slip.