Lord Pentland: Lack of funding will stall new regulation regime

The Act, which was passed last May, gives the lord president ultimate responsibility for regulating the Scottish legal profession and will significantly expand his current functions.

Lord Pentland wrote to the Scottish government in February last year to indicate how much funding would be needed to prepare for his new functions, including recruiting new staff. The Scottish government duly presented the costs to Holyrood in a financial memorandum.

It was confirmed in July this year that the lord president’s office would receive half of the funding that had been requested.

But the first Lord President’s Annual Regulatory Report states that much of the work “can only commence once additional staff are in post”.

“If the lord president’s office does not receive the second half of the funding requested for implementation, work on these significant substantive workstreams would stall and it would be highly unlikely that these powers could be commenced in the near future,” the report adds.