Explanatory Notes

Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008

2008 asp 6

29 October 2008

The Act

Schedule 1 – the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland

The judicial and legal members

127.Paragraph 3(1) and (2) sets out who qualifies as a judicial member and who qualifies as a legal member. The Lord President and Lord Justice Clerk are excluded from judicial membership. There are three judicial members and two legal members. Subparagraph (4) provides the Scottish Ministers with an order-making power to modify the judicial or legal membership categories. This power could be used to alter the membership of the Board on a permanent or temporary basis, for example, to add a new category of judicial office or increase the number of members from a particular category. This may be necessary when the Board is asked to deal with a large number of appointments in a short period of time; the Board may require an increased membership to deal with the increased workload. The effect of paragraph 3(5) is that the Scottish Ministers may add judicial and legal members to the Board by order, but may only remove those members already added by order; they may not remove the membership categories set out in subparagraphs (1) and (2).