Section 9 – Reappointment of part-time sheriffs
30.Section 9 restates, with some amendments, section 11B of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971. The Act does not, however, re-enact the prohibition on those aged 69 from being reappointed. Retirement ages in general are not reproduced in the Act and are instead consolidated through amendments made to the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993 by schedule 5, paragraph 8. Section 11B(9), of the 1971 Act which prevented part-time sheriffs who were solicitors from acting as part-time sheriffs in the same sheriff court district as that individual’s principal place of business, is substantially re-enacted in section 15(3).
31.The effect of section 9 is that, except where one of the conditions in subsection (1)(a)-(c) is met, or the individual in question has reached the statutory retirement age of 70 contained in section 26(1) of the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993, that individual must be re-appointed at the expiry of each five-year appointment.
