Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025

Meaning of key expressions

5 Meaning of “legal services” and “legal services provider”

(1) For the purposes of this Act, legal services are services which consist of (at least one of)—

(a) the provision of legal advice or assistance in connection with—

(i) any contract, deed, writ, will or other legal document,

(ii) the application of the law, or

(iii) any form of resolution of legal disputes,

(b) the provision of legal representation in connection with—

(i) the application of the law, or

(ii) any form of resolution of legal disputes.

(2) But, for those purposes, legal services do not include—

(a) judicial activities,

(b) any other activity of a judicial nature,

(c) any activity of a quasi-judicial nature, or

(d) any activity which involves acting as a third party decision-maker or facilitator in a type of alternative dispute resolution.

(3) In subsection (1)(a)(iii) and (b)(ii), “legal disputes” includes disputes as to any matter of fact the resolution of which is relevant to determining the nature of any person’s legal rights or obligations.

(4) In this Act, “legal services provider” means a person or body that provides legal services (whether or not directly to the public and whether or not the person’s provision of such legal services is regulated).

6 Meaning of regulatory functions

For the purposes of this Act, a reference to the regulatory functions of a regulatory authority is a reference to its functions of regulating legal services providers in relation to any matter of professional practice, conduct or discipline including, as appropriate—

(a) setting standards for admission or authorisation and the ongoing training of its providers,

(b) handling complaints about its providers,

(c) making regulatory rules under any relevant enactment, and

(d) complying with the requirements imposed on the regulatory authority under this Act (for example, in relation to keeping a register of its providers) and, if applicable, Part 2 of the 2010 Act.