Parliament Workbench
Data: Official Report to 12 Nov 2026

Official Report · Committee

Current Petitions

Law Society of Scotland (Complaints Procedures) (PE606)

Wednesday 3 September 2003 Public Petitions Committee Petitions 6 contributions · 2 speakers

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The record

6 contributions
John Scott Con The Deputy Convener · Ayr
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We move to consideration of the last of our current petitions, PE606, which calls for a review of the complaints procedures of the Law Society of Scotland. The petitioner calls on the Scottish Parliament to take the necessary steps to improve the transparency and accountability of and accessibility to the Law Society's complaints procedures.The petition is prompted by the difficulties that were experienced by the petitioner in attempting to raise a civil claim for financial loss against a solicitor on the ground of negligence. The petitioner claims that she was refused access to legal aid for her claim and that the Law Society failed to provide the specific information that she requested on the master policy with regard to the insurance of the allegedly negligent firm of solicitors.Our predecessor committee agreed to seek comments from both the Executive and the Law Society of Scotland. It appears from the responses that most of the petitioner's concerns in relation to the availability of information on the master policy are unfounded. Details of the policy can be found on the Law Society's website and a range of further information is available on request. The Executive has also made it clear that, as part of its response to the Justice 1 Committee's session 1 report on the regulation of the legal profession, it intends to examine the operation and regulation of the master policy, together with other related issues such as compensation levels and the operation of the pursuer's panel. What is the committee's view of what we should do with the petition?

Linda Fabiani SNP Central Scotland
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As far as the Public Petitions Committee is concerned, PE606 should be closed as the issues seem to have been addressed. However, I want to say one thing about the master policy. Members will see from the Law Society's letter that the policy is publicly available on its website and that the society thinks that that is the best way of disseminating information. Although that might be fine, a lot of people do not have access to the web. Part of the trouble is that a lot of organisations think that if they put information on the web they have no further obligation to publish that information. It is difficult for someone who does not have access to the web to phone up an organisation and ask for a hard copy of a document. Hard copies do not seem to do the rounds as they used to do. Perhaps we should send a note to the Law Society saying that, although it is fine for it to place information on its website, it should take account of the fact that not everyone has web access. We should also ask whether the society is willing to send out hard copies of documents to those who might request them.

John Scott Con The Deputy Convener · Ayr
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Should we forward the petition to one of the justice committees?

Linda Fabiani SNP Central Scotland
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No. An investigation was undertaken into a similar subject.

John Scott Con The Deputy Convener · Ayr
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Therefore, there would be no benefit in doing so again. Are members content with that position?

Members indicated agreement.

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