SLCC confirms proposed levy rise
Levies paid by practitioners to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission will rise by the previously proposed figure of 9%, the SLCC confirmed today.
Laying its budget for 2023-24 before the Scottish Parliament, the SLCC confirmed that, following two years of cuts, rebounding complaint numbers and rising energy, staffing, legal and court costs mean the levy will rise to just below pre-pandemic levels.
It means that the levy paid by principals and managers will rise from £444 to £484, the employed solicitor's levy from £361 to £393 (£166 during the first three years of practice), that for solicitors outwith Scotland from £118 to £129, and for in-house lawyers from £108 to £118. Advocates will pay £186, up from £171.
In an effort to tackle the problem of firms delaying to provide client files for investigations, the full complaint levy will go up by £2,000 to £7,000, but a reformed policy will initially see this higher rate charged only where a firm is judged to have failed to respond to a statutory request without any appropriate mitigating explanation.
The SLCC has also asked the Law Society of Scotland to work with it to deliver the Society’s request for further consultation on proposals to introduce a higher complaint levy for those firms who do not respond to statutory requests for files.
The confirmed rise comes despite representations from the Law Society of Scotland that the levy had increased in recent years by more than the percentage rise in complaints, or in the solicitors' practising certificate, and from the Faculty of Advocates that it was not proportionate to charge advocates more when the rise in complaints was from other legal professionals.
Interim chair of the SLCC, Niki Maclean commented: "Our thanks go to those who took time to respond to our consultation and made helpful comments and suggestions. The SLCC board considered all responses carefully and we look forward to working with stakeholders to deliver our operating plan for 2023-24.
"We know that any rise in the levy is unwelcome. Like all businesses we are facing additional costs pressures and we need to ensure we have sufficient budget to discharge our statutory duties.
"However, hard work in recent years has seen significant improvements in efficiency, and with those now embedded in the system, we have been able to limit the budget rise to below inflation and keep the levy below the level set in 2020/21."
She added: "However, we were persuaded by the Law Society’s comments on the need for consultation directly with the profession on [the revised complaint levy]. As such we agreed to approve the proposed higher levy rate now to allow us to implement that later next year if that’s agreed to be the best way forward, but we will apply an automatic discount for the next four months to allow us to carry out that further consultation. We look forward to working with the Law Society to ensure we are able to gather responses from across the profession before deciding on next steps."
Chief executive Neil Stevenson added: "While we welcome constructive challenge to our proposed budget and levies, any analysis or comparisons must be based on accurate data and must not be misleading.
"In addition, every year we ask for comments on appropriate apportionment across the profession but have yet to receive any response which proposes an alternative approach."