Influential voice that enhances our legal sector and justice

Criminal Justice Reform
We will champion the interests of justice and the right to a fair trial as major reforms to criminal justice (Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform Bill, and Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews Bill) complete their passage through the Scottish Parliament.

We actively engaged with two pieces of legislation which aimed to significantly reform the criminal justice system in Scotland - the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill and the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill.

During stages 2 and 3 of parliamentary scrutiny of each Bill, we highlighted our concerns regarding the interests of justice, the right to a fair trial, and the practical impacts on the legal profession.

We were pleased to have our amendments lodged by opposition MSPs and debated during committee stage. The Scottish Government also made changes to both Bills following our engagement- most notably, in removing the juryless trials pilot from the Victims Bill at stage 2.

Both Bills completed their passage through parliament and we commenced engagement with the government and other justice sector stakeholders on implementation, ensuring that the legal profession is directly involved in shaping the implementation of these significant reforms.

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Legal Aid
We will push the Scottish Government to take action to address the underfunding of legal aid and the impact this is having on access to justice across Scotland.

Ensuring people can access the legal support and advice they need is crucial and we continued to be vocal about the sustained crisis in legal aid and the impact on access to justice across Scotland. We undertook research and launched a high-profile public facing ‘Legal Aid Matters’ campaign to highlight the issues to a wide range of audiences. Around 1,000 people signed our campaign pledge.

In addition to our campaign work we worked constructively with a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), Scottish Solicitors Bar Association (SSBA), Citizens Advice Scotland and other civil society organisations to look at possible non-legislative improvements to the legal aid system.

We also engaged with MSPs, including via two oral evidence sessions in the Scottish Parliament, with our input having an impact on the Civil Legal Aid Inquiry Report, which underlined the pressing issues affecting civil legal aid and the need for reform.

Throughout the year we also engaged extensively with the Scottish Government on proposed legal aid fee increases, making positive progress in pressing our position that an immediate double digit increases for civil and criminal legal aid fees is essential. The government also accepted our calls for a Fee Review Mechanism to be established and for a Traineeship Fund to be reinstated.

We continued to work with government and SLAB to shape reforms to the legal aid system via secondary legislation, with a consultation launching shortly before the end of the operating year.

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Reform of legal services regulation
We will work to deliver the best outcome on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, which provides us with a broader range of regulatory powers and stops proposals for direct political interference in regulation.

The Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in May 2025, marking the conclusion of a 10-year effort to modernise and improve the legislative framework in which we regulate and increase protection for the public.

The legislation marked a major success for us. By the end of the parliamentary process, we had a Bill which:

a) retained the Law Society as the regulator of Scottish solicitors,

b) did not remove a single one of our powers,

c) gave us considerable new powers.

All the proposed powers of political control and interference were stripped from the Bill. Equally, the Scottish Government responded to our concerns and changed the proposed powers for the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) to be able to set minimum standards on the profession directly.

In passing the Bill, we will gain powers that we have campaigned for more than a decade to obtain. This includes the ability to introduce entity regulation, the right to initiate a conduct investigation without having to go through the SLCC, broader suspension powers, the ability to discontinue complaints investigations, and the right to compel information from solicitors and firms before a complaint is made.

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Judicial Factors (Scotland) Bill
We will work to deliver a modernised statutory regime for Judicial Factors in Scotland as the Judicial Factors (Scotland) Bill completes its passage through the Scottish Parliament.

The Judicial Factors (Scotland) Bill passed stage 3 on 10 December 2024 and received Royal Assent on 27 January 2025. The Bill sought to modernise the law around judicial factors, much it having been in existence for over a century, and to bring significant improvements when arrangements are needed to safeguard money and other client assets.

Our engagement with MSPs and the Scottish Government at stages 2 and 3 resulted in the government bringing forward amendments which addressed our main concerns including those around data protection legislation, the definition of financial assets, vesting of the estate where caution is required, the recall and discharge process, and the legislation’s interaction with the complaints process for solicitors.  Commencement of the majority of the Act’s provisions will be subject to regulations. We continue to liaise with the Scottish Government on likely timescales for implementation of these important reforms. (See 2.7, above)

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Scottish Parliament elections 2026
We will commence work on our priorities document for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, ensuring our members are engaged in the key justice issues needing addressed in the next term of the parliament.

We undertook a programme of engagement with our members, committee volunteers and other stakeholders to establish our priority themes, recommendations, asks and areas of law reform for the 2026 Scottish elections. These findings formed the basis of our election priorities document which was published early in the following operating year 2025/26.

We also commenced engagement with the main political parties, sharing our key asks to influence the manifesto development process and help shape the debate around key justice issues during the 2026 election campaign. 

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International engagement
We will seek to strengthen the voice of Scottish solicitors internationally and enhance our engagement through key global justice organisations.

Following a comprehensive review of our current working groups, we created a new International Committee to strengthen the voice of Scottish solicitors internationally and enhance our engagement through key global justice organisations.

Following our committee recruitment campaign, we recruited a convener and received high quality applications to fill the committee. The committee’s first meeting was held in the new operating year 2025/26.

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