Question reference: S5W-14786
- Asked by: Ben Macpherson, MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 21 February 2018
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Current status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Annabelle Ewing on 22 February 2018
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what proposals the Scottish Law Commission has for future law reform projects.
Answer
I have agreed with the Scottish Law Commission its Tenth Programme of Law Reform, which covers the work to be undertaken by the Commission for the five year period from 2018 until the end of 2022. The Programme was presented to Parliament today and is also being published today. The Programme is also available online from the Scottish Law Commission website.
The projects which will be undertaken under the Tenth Programme have been selected following consultation by the Commission. The Programme includes existing projects which began under the Ninth Programme, such as work on contracts law, heritable securities and aspects of leases. A joint project with the Law Commission on surrogacy will also be undertaken. In addition, the Commission expects to undertake new projects which will cover the homicide, aspects of family law and some aspects of the law on damages for personal injury.
I welcome this Programme, which represents a varied and relevant set of proposals, and look forward to receiving reports from the Commission in due course. We will continue to work with the Commission over ways of taking forward the proposals in those reports, and will continue with the system introduced last year of providing initial responses to reports within 3 months of publication.
The Scottish Law Commission also has a general remit to keep the law of Scotland under review for the purpose of promoting reform and development of the law. In addition to the Programme of Law Reform agreed with Ministers, the Commission also receives from Ministers references on specific issues and provides other advice on specific areas of the law.