Business owners to shoulder costs under SLCC’s proposed budget

Neil Stevenson

The changes would see business owners pay more of the costs of regulation and complaints.

The final decision of the SLCC’s board on budget will be laid before the Scottish Parliament after key themes from the responses have been considered.

SLCC chair Jim Martin said: “We thought that such a big change might lead to significant debate and different viewpoints. In the end, there was no challenge to the proposed model. We’re delighted to be leading in rethinking what a modern, risk-based, quality improvement focussed system looks like.”

Commenting on one particular consultation response SLCC chief executive Neil Stevenson said: “We were surprised our audited complaint numbers, showing the increase in recent years, were challenged.

“Performance and accounts data for the SLCC covering the past 10 years since our creation is freely available on our website and reported to the Scottish Parliament. Annual external audits are also available on the Audit Scotland website.

“The complaint figures cited by the Law Society of Scotland relate to a period when the majority of complaints were still being processed by the Law Society itself. The costs and performance figures of their processing of complaints for this period are not in the public domain to allow analysis.

“We are conscious of the comments on total costs and will continue to focus on efficiency work and an increasing emphasis on working with the profession to try to tackle the common causes of complaints.”