205.This section amends section 14 of the 2010 Act (licensing rules: general) to provide that licensing fees that may be charged by an approved regulator in relation to the issue or renewal of licences for its licensed providers may be different for different categories of licensed providers, different types of licence or different categories of legal services to be provided by the licensed provider under the licence.
206.This section amends section 47 of the 2010 Act (licensed providers) to remove a requirement that a business entity can only be a licensed legal services provider under Part 2 of the 2010 Act if it provides (or offers to provide) legal services for a fee, gain or reward. It means that a business entity that satisfies the other criteria in section 47 of the 2010 Act (including the criterion that it provides legal services under a licence issued by an approved regulator and in accordance with its licensing rules) will, for the purposes of Part 2 of the 2010 Act, be a licensed legal services provider, even if it does not provide (or offer to provide) such services for a fee, gain or reward. This will allow for third sector and community organisations to own and operate a licensed legal services provider.
207.This section ensures that a law centre is no longer barred from becoming a licensed legal services provider under Part 2 of the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010.
208.In this context, a “
established for the purpose of providing legal services to the public generally as well as to individual members of the public, and
which does not distribute any profits made either to its members or otherwise but reinvests any such profits for the purposes of the law centre.
209.This section repeals section 49 of the 2010 Act.
210.Before its repeal, that provision provided that an entity is eligible to be a licensed legal services provider under Part 2 of the 2010 Act if the qualifying investors (solicitor investors or investors who are members of another regulated profession) in the entity had (taken together) at least a 51% stake in the total ownership or control of the entity.
211.This section amends section 64 of the 2010 Act, which sets out matters relevant as respects a non-solicitor investor’s fitness. The amendment clarifies that only a significant ownership or control of the body is a relevant matter. What constitutes as “significant” is to be determined by the approved regulator.