The review committee (RC) system in the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025 provides insufficient detail to determine whether the system will be compliant with Article 6 of the ECHR. Furthermore, the costs of establishing and running the RC are as yet unknown. SLAS invites the SLCC to publish details of its operational plan for the RC.

If the RC is just another committee of similar composition to other committees then it is unlikely to comply with Article 6 as it will be an internal review only and not a proper separate appeal body giving consideration to the merits the review cases. It ought to be served by separate staff from the SLCC to ensure independence and rules to prevent internal influence. 

All of this will come at a cost which will be borne by levies on the profession. Those details appear to be left to new undisclosed SLCC Rules. It is totally unsatisfactory for such details to be left to secondary legislation when replacing an appeal process to the Court of Session.

We recommend that the chair be legally qualified with experience of several years to act, together with another legally qualified member and one lay member. The chair and the legal member should be appointed by the independent Judicial Appointments Board and not the SLCC, nor the Scottish government in order to ensure independence.

Without a clear and compliant structure, all decisions of the RC may be subject to judicial review which cannot have been Parliament’s intent. Once more this will increase costs which ultimately will be borne by the profession.

The mere establishment of the RC will encourage parties to seek a review which will not involve the consumer in any expense. It seems likely that review will become the norm further clogging a system which is at best already creaking.

SLAS urges the SLCC to engage with the wider profession including the lord president and consider very carefully implementation of the new RC to ensure fairness and independence, essentials of what will be a quasi-judicial body.