Commission seeks law reform topics for new programme

Views on the law reform projects that should feature in its next five year programme are being invited by the Scottish Law Commission as it opens a public consultation on its future work. 

Due to run from 2023, the Commission’s Eleventh Programme of Law Reform will include a number of projects carried forward from the Tenth Programme of Law Reform – those on homicide; heritable securities; damages for personal injury; and aspects of family law – as well as its work on legal changes necessary to establish compulsory owners’ associations for tenement properties, following a reference from Housing Secretary Shona Robison.

However it also invites views from the public on which areas of Scots law are most in need of reform as they cause difficulties in practice.

It may also carry out law reform work jointly with the Law Commission for England & Wales, such as the recent report on the legal regime that should support the use of automated vehicles. Its remit covers all areas of the law, whether reserved or devolved.

In preparing its new programme, the Commission will have regard to the Scottish Government's National Performance Framework, which aims to:

• create a more successful country;
• give opportunities to all people living in Scotland;
• increase the wellbeing of people living in Scotland;
• create sustainable and inclusive growth; and
• reduce inequalities and give equal importance to economic, environmental and social progress.

Topics will be selected based on their importance (the extent to which the law is unjust or out of date at present, and the benefits to be gained from reform); their suitability (whether the issues are legal rather than political, and whether another body is better placed to examine them); and the Commission’s resources.

Lady Paton, the judge who chairs the Commission, commented: “We wish to maximise the benefits that our law reform work can bring to Scotland and to the people and businesses in Scotland. We therefore seek contributions from all those with suggestions for reform of laws which are thought to be unfair, unclear, unduly complex, or out of date.”

Access the consultation here. The closing date for responses is 29 July 2022.