Search Legislation

Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010

Section 50 – Key duties

112.Section 50 sets out the key duties applicable to all licensed providers, including their obligations with respect to the regulatory objectives, professional principles, their approved regulator’s regulatory scheme and licence terms and conditions. Licensed providers must also ensure compliance with any professional code of conduct applicable to persons within the licensed provider – whether or not such codes are directly incorporated within the approved regulator’s scheme.

113.Because a licensed provider is an intangible entity, the Act provides that all such providers must have identifiable individuals responsible for securing compliance with the key duties, namely a Head of Legal Services (see section 51) and either a Head of Practice (see section 52) or Practice Committee (see section 53). The two posts have distinct but overlapping duties. Broadly, the Head of Legal Services is responsible for ensuring compliance with regulatory objectives and professional principles, while the Head of Practice is responsible for the broader compliance with the relevant regulatory scheme, and licence terms and conditions.

Back to top

Options/Help

Print Options

Close

Explanatory Notes

Text created by the Scottish Government to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Acts of the Scottish Parliament except those which result from Budget Bills.

Close

More Resources

Access essential accompanying documents and information for this legislation item from this tab. Dependent on the legislation item being viewed this may include:

  • the original print PDF of the as enacted version that was used for the print copy
  • lists of changes made by and/or affecting this legislation item
  • confers power and blanket amendment details
  • all formats of all associated documents
  • correction slips
  • links to related legislation and further information resources