Official Report 96KB pdf
Draft Instrument Subject <br />to Approval
Debt Arrangement Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (draft)
We come to item 4. I gather from the legal advice that this is a difficult statutory instrument and that there are a number of substantial problems with it. The legal adviser has suggested 14 questions that we should ask the Executive, as well as minor points to make in an informal letter. Do members want to discuss any particular question?
These are the first regulations made under the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002, so it is perhaps not surprising that the Executive has not got everything right.
Our legal adviser thinks so.
That means that if that debtor wanted advice free they would have to go somewhere else.
Yes.
Right; excellent.
I agree with Alasdair Morgan that the regulation seems a little strange. Presumably, anybody to whom one goes for advice is going to say, "Yes, you can get it free, but not from me." Someone could end up going to 25 different people for advice.
Yes. The other point in the legal advice is that it is not clear what is to happen if no money advice is available free of charge.
Exactly.
I do not know whether that is a policy matter. I presume that the situation must be the same with legal aid.
Yes, but the point is that the way that the regulation is drafted means that it is not clear what is to happen if no advice is available free of charge.
Is money aid going to be available?
The regulation needs to be clarified.
We have a number of questions to ask. I suggest that we write to the Executive with them and reconsider the issues when we get a response. Is that agreed?
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