Explanatory Notes

Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014

2014 asp 18

10 November 2014

The Act

Part 1 - Sheriff Courts

Chapter 3 — Organisation of business
Deployment of judiciary
Section 33 – Allocation of sheriffs and summary sheriffs to sheriff court districts

59.Section 33 updates and restates section 14(3) of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971 and extends its provisions to summary sheriffs. It provides that the Lord President is to designate in a direction a particular sheriff court district in which a sheriff or summary sheriff is to sit. Further it allows the Lord President to move a sheriff or summary sheriff to a different district within the sheriffdom by designation in a direction. Subsection (3) clarifies the interaction between the power in subsection (1) with the power of the sheriff principal to make temporary special provisions under section 27(3)(b), giving precedence to the sheriff principal’s use of that power.