Next PC fee set at £585

Solicitors will pay £585 for their practising certificate fee in 2022-23, the Law Society of Scotland’s AGM has confirmed. 

The online meeting on 26 May supported Council’s proposal to set the fee at a rate £10 higher than pre-pandemic – 8% lower in real terms, the Society said – as the special discounts applied as part of the support package during COVID-19 come to an end.

Outgoing President Ken Dalling said: “We temporarily cut the PC fee by 20% in 2020-21 to support solicitors when they needed it most, at a point when we had no way of knowing what the full impact of the pandemic would be. Our members’ approval of the increased PC fee demonstrates recognition that, as we start to move on from the pandemic, we must ensure the Law Society’s finances are secure.”

He added that careful budget management meant the Society had been able to limit the fee increase.

In his AGM address the President recognised the efforts of members in another year that continued to be dominated by COVID. “Solicitors once again went above and beyond, working longer and harder to provide essential advice and expertise to those most in need and to ensure that civic life, private life, politics, government and the courts continued to function”, he said.

“And it is a tribute to your commitment that public satisfaction remained impressively high, with the number of those satisfied with the service they received from their solicitor increasing slightly to 93%, according to our own survey at the end of last year. That is a huge vote of confidence in the profession and something I think we can – and should – all be proud of.”

What had been key to coming through the pandemic was the active role that solicitors, and indeed the Society, had played in finding solutions to problems. Using cinemas as remote jury centres had emanated from discussions at the Society; and his own sheriff principal, in evaluating the virtual custody pilot, had made a particular point of commending those solicitors who had facilitated its operation despite resourcing issues. 

“There is no getting away from it, it is people who make the difference”, Dalling continued.

As for the Society, it had had a busy year working on regulation reform and complaint handling – and protecting legal aid and access to justice had remained key priorities throughout, with a £20 million support package secured from the Scottish Government.

“However, the current crisis in legal aid cannot be overstated. It has been a generation in the making and the Society will continue to press the Government to invest properly in legal aid to ensure the most vulnerable in our society receive the advice and services they need, and solicitors are fairly paid for the work they do.”

Chief executive Diane McGiffen said she had spent much of the time since joining the Society listening – within the Society and across the legal sector; to stakeholders in the wider justice sector; to those in other jurisdictions, and to the wider business community. Throughout, she had been “tremendously struck by the support from within and the pride when looking from afar for our Scottish legal profession”. 

Looking ahead, what she was most excited about was the development of the Society’s next five year strategy, which will launch in October. 

The Society had been working tirelessly with colleagues, members and Council; and their insights and expertise had helped it “navigate some of the biggest issues we have ever faced, both as an organisation and as a civil society”. 

“So it is with pride, a sense of optimism and a promise of unwavering dedication that I take the Law Society of Scotland forward.”

Treasurer Graham Watson reported an after-tax profit of £583,000 for the 2020-21 practising year, from income of £10.6 million, boosted by an unrealised gain of £618,000 on the value of the Society’s investment portfolio. Expenditure, excluding pension scheme adjustments, had been cut by 5.3% to £10.5 million. Overall performance against the budgeted operating loss of £1,500,000 for the year was positive.