Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025

1 Overview of the regulatory framework

(1) Chapter 1 makes provision in respect of—

(a) the objectives of regulating legal services and how they are to be applied (see sections 2 and 3),

(b) the professional principles (see section 4),

(c) defining key expressions for the purposes of this Act (see sections 5 and 6).

(2) Chapter 2 makes provision in respect of regulators of legal services, which includes—

(a) establishing two categories of regulator and assigning the existing regulators to one of those categories (see section 7),

(b) setting the requirements for a category 1 regulator, which include—

(i) having an independent regulatory committee (where necessary) which is responsible for exercising its regulatory functions (see sections 8 to 11),

(ii) preparing an annual report (see section 12),

(iii) having a compensation fund (see section 13),

(c) setting the requirements for a category 2 regulator, which include—

(i) exercising its regulatory functions independently of any other functions it has and properly in all respects (see section 14),

(ii) preparing an annual report (see section 15),

(d) requiring both category 1 and category 2 regulators to—

(i) maintain a publicly available register of the legal services providers that it regulates (see section 16), and

(ii) have rules in respect of professional indemnity insurance (see section 17),

(e) setting out the role and powers of the Lord President in respect of regulators and the regulatory framework (see sections 18 and 19 and schedule 2),

(f) conferring power on regulators to make special rule changes in relation to a particular legal services provider where it is appropriate to do so (see sections 20 to 22).

(3) Paragraph 40 of schedule 3 provides for category 1 regulators to be subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 in respect of the exercise of their regulatory functions.

(4) Chapter 3 makes provision about the process for a body to become accredited to authorise persons and acquire and exercise rights to provide legal services, which includes—

(a) applications and the application process (see sections 23 and 26),

(b) requiring the applicant to produce a draft regulatory scheme, which must meet certain requirements (see section 24),

(c) the manner in which applications are to be considered and approved (see sections 27 and 28),

(d) how any rights acquired by persons authorised by the accredited regulator are to be exercised (see section 29),

(e) how the rights may be surrendered or revoked (and what happens to the providers affected) (see sections 30, 34 and 35),

(f) the review of regulatory schemes (see sections 32 and 33).

(5) Part 1 of schedule 1 makes amendments to enactments relating to the Law Society in consequence of the Society being a category 1 regulator and Part 1 of schedule 3 makes other consequential amendments relating to the Society.