SLCC proposes small levy rise and big procedure changes
A proposed headline levy of £316 for 2016-17, and a desire to achieve big changes in the way complaints are handled, are unveiled in twin consultations opened today by the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.
Alongside its annual budget and complaints levy consultation, the SLCC is consulting on a new strategy for the next four years, aimed at streamlining its investigation and resolution procedures and making them less confusing for consumers. A key question is whether it can significantly cut the time taken to resolve complaints – six months is suggested as a possible target.
Major proposals would require legislation – and the SLCC believes there will be an opportunity for legislation in the next session of the Scottish Parliament – but it also believes that more efficiencies can be achieved within the current framework.
The draft strategy outlines a number of key priorities for the SLCC, and the steps by which it aims to deepen user confidence, promote strong relationships between consumers and their lawyers, deliver early resolution of complaints and redress where appropriate to complainers, and improve complaints handling both by lawyers and by itself as an organisation. A draft operating plan for 2016-17 sets out many of the means by which it hopes to further these aims.
Chief executive Neil Stevenson said the SLCC was looking at the NHS as a possible model for providing a more consumer focused service. “We tend to talk about regulation from the perspective of the pieces of legislation, or the institutions involved", he commented. "With the strategy we’re consulting on, we’ve lifted techniques used with patients in the NHS, and used them to examine the pathways along which lawyers and consumers experience regulation. It makes you look very differently at the current landscape – for example, should a single complaint travel across as many as four organisations to be resolved? And even if that is the best way of handling it, how do you work together to give the consumer a single explanation of the system and the different stages?”
Mr Stevenson said he also wanted to tackle situations where the SLCC decides a client has suffered poor service, but the legal firm is being disbanded and the client never gets the refund in fees that is awarded. "We think this undermines confidence in the regulation of the sector, and want to work with others to look for solutions. We believe clients should be sure they will always get redress when things go wrong, and we know lawyers also want to be able to give this reassurance, but that’s not a promise that can always be made at the moment."
He added: "Of course, the purpose of the consultation is to see what focus and projects others think are important, and we’d really encourage debate and input.”
The 2016-17 levy proposals are based on a 6.8% budget increase due mainly to staff and property costs, though these would be partly absorbed by drawing on reserves – the baseline levy to recover full budgeted costs would be £332. The £316 proposed is £4 higher than this year's £312. Solicitors in their first three years of practice would pay £158, those outwith Scotland £103, in-house lawyers £95, advocates £150 and members of the Association of Commercial Attorneys £100. No change is proposed to the complaints levy.
Click here to access the consultation documents. The deadline for responses is Friday 11 March.