Justice 1 Committee, 19 Jun 2001
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 19, 2001
Official Report
291KB pdf
Regulation of the Legal Profession Inquiry
The declarations of interest that were made earlier still stand. The Law Society of Scotland will have to be disappointed about its request for an extension of the deadline. If we extended it, our evidence sessions would take up time in which we may have to take evidence on various bills that we will consider after the summer recess.
Members have a copy of the draft terms of reference. I would like to change the first bullet point under the heading "Terms of Reference", which refers to
"the framework of regulation of the legal profession in Scotland",
to include regulation of legal services.
It strikes me that one issue that was opened up, which falls within the scope of regulation of the legal profession, is regulation of entry into the legal profession. The Competition Commission is considering the impact of that on the legal profession south of the border and, I presume, north of the border. I feel that the remit of the inquiry would allow us to consider that, which would be useful. I do not want to exclude it, although it might make the inquiry a bit bigger.
If people are happy with the approach and the time scale, we must agree on the list of witnesses. The Law Society suggested adding the Lord President and a Whitehall department, although it was not clear which department.
I did not understand that suggestion.
The Lord President might be a sensible addition.
The Law Society mentioned other organisations that are involved in co-regulation of the legal profession. We should not contact them all, but the Financial Services Authority might be worth approaching, given that some complaints seem to centre on matters of cash. I do not think that the insolvency service or the immigration services commissioner are worth approaching at this stage. Perhaps we could write to the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission. We want to consult as widely as possible, so if anyone has any additions to the list of consultees to suggest, please e-mail them to the clerks.
With those additions, is the remit agreed?
Members indicated agreement.
Have we determined who we will call to give evidence?
No. We will decide that on the basis of the submissions.
I seek clarification of the list of proposed witnesses. Under the heading "Government, etc", Westminster, the Welsh Assembly, the Dáil and the Northern Ireland Assembly are mentioned. What do we intend to gain from contacting them? Will we contact the committees that deal with justice matters?
We will make contact at a parliamentary level. We will speak to the committee—or whatever passes for our equivalent—in those legislatures to find out whether there are any relevant issues or inquiries in those jurisdictions that might inform us. If so, we will investigate more.
This is the committee's last meeting before the summer recess. We will restart in September. The timetable for meetings in September and thereafter is still being drawn up, but we will send it to members as soon as possible. Thank you for your co-operation, and enjoy the recess.
Meeting closed at 16:58.