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Consultation – new Education (Scotland) Bill
Earlier this month the Scottish Government began the consultation process on the provisions of the draft Education (Scotland) Bill. The Bill is likely to be the centre-piece of the Scottish...
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The Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016: countdown to compliance
Lobbying is an important part of our democratic process and can take many forms. The Scottish Parliament has taken action to ensure that when lobbying takes place it is transparent. The Lobbying...
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Reform to adults with incapacity legislation – consultation
The Adults with Incapacity Act (Scotland) 2000 sets out the current statutory framework for safeguarding the welfare and managing the finances and property of adults lacking capacity to make those...
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Duty of Candour – now coming into force
From 1 April 2018 a new ‘duty of candour’ will be brought into force in relation to organisations providing health and social care. The duty was introduced by the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and...
View ArticleEU Withdrawal Bill Receives Royal Assent
This is just a short post to highlight that the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill received Royal Assent yesterday, and so is now the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This means that the legal...
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UK Supreme Court rules parts of Scottish Brexit Bill to be outside...
The UK Supreme Court gave its judgment on Thursday last week, in the first ever challenge by UK law officers to the competence of a Scottish Parliament Bill. A panel of seven Supreme Court justices...
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The Scottish Parliament’s post-Brexit powers
In the midst of seemingly endless Brexit controversies, one issue has dropped under the radar somewhat: the Scottish Parliament’s post-Brexit powers. Readers will no doubt recall that the European...
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The Referendums (Scotland) Bill – what you need to know
Introduction This week saw the introduction in the Scottish Parliament of the Referendums (Scotland) Bill following the First Minister’s statement to Parliament last month that she intended to seek...
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Post-Brexit Frameworks – Westminster’s report
The recent temporary lull in parliamentary activity around Brexit allows us space to return to a topic we have briefed on previously: what powers will the UK’s devolved administrations have after the...
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The Scottish Parliament’s post-Brexit powers – the view from Holyrood
An important element of the UK’s preparations for Brexit is the ongoing debate about the proper distribution of powers between the UK Parliament and Government and the devolved administrations after...
View ArticleThe Scottish Parliament’s powers – the Supreme Court speaks
The Supreme Court recently issued its decision in Imperial Tobacco’s challenge to the Scottish Parliament’s ban on the display of tobacco products in shops and their sale via tobacco vending machines....
View ArticleFirst parliamentary debate on independence referendum legislation
In March this year, Charles blogged about the introduction to the Scottish Parliament of the ‘paving’ Bill to make provision on the franchise for next year’s independence referendum. Tuesday marked the...
View ArticleScottish Government’s legislative programme 2013-2014
Earlier this month, First Minister Alex Salmond set out the Scottish Government’s legislative programme for the coming year. You can find the Scottish Government’s summary of all 15 bills here. You can...
View ArticleScottish Independence: Holyrood debate marks a year to go
You will have seen from today’s frenzy of blog activity that the ‘pre-anniversary’ of the independence referendum has not been lost on us. The day was also marked by a debate in the Scottish...
View ArticleProcurement reform: legislation coming soon
The Scottish Government’s procurement reform proposals reached a further milestone last week when First Minister Alex Salmond informed members that its Procurement Reform Bill had been sent to...
View ArticleScottish Independence update: Major steps on the road to 2014
The Scottish Parliament last week passed the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill. The Bill sets out the referendum rules – among other things, it confirms the date (18 September 2014) and the...
View ArticleChildren and Young People (Scotland) Bill
As part of the Scottish Government’s most recent legislative programme (see here for my post on the programme), the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill was introduced to put in place a coherent...
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The perils of inalienable common good land: when is a disposal not a disposal?
Local authority property lawyers will have noted with interest the recent Outer House decision on common good, in East Renfrewshire Council, Petitioners. This case concerned an application by the...
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Procurement: Key Developments and Coming Reforms
Christine, Charles, Niall and Stephen from our Public Law & Regulatory team attended a very interesting Scottish Competition Law Forum event last week on key developments and coming reforms in...
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Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT)
From 1 April 2015, Scotland will raise its first tax in over 300 years as Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) replaces SDLT on purchases and leases of land in Scotland. Revenue Scotland, which...
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Appropriation of inalienable common good land: the Land Reform (Scotland)...
Over the last few years, the law on inalienable common good land has been a hot topic for local government and property lawyers. Recent decisions of the Court of Session confirmed that while s.75 of...
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Scottish Government makes ’emergency’ changes to disclosure laws
Yesterday, the Scottish Government debated the (catchily-titled) Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015, which came into force today. Aimed at...
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Scottish Parliament passes Harbours Bill
On Tuesday 27 October the Scottish Parliament passed the Harbours (Scotland) Bill. The main purpose of the Bill is to remove the power of the Scottish Ministers to require certain trust ports to...
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Social care round-up: abolishing charges for non-residential social care
A number of interesting developments in the health and social care sector have caught our eye recently. We have prepared a series of posts on issues of particular interest to us. The topic of our first...
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Social care round-up: Carers (Scotland) Bill
We blogged yesterday about a proposal for a new piece of legislation. Today’s update covers a draft Bill in the Scottish Parliament. We have in the past written about the relative absence of...
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Holyrood Committee reports on Lobbying (Scotland) Bill
The Scottish Parliament’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee last week released its Stage 1 report on the Lobbying (Scotland) Bill. Readers may remember that the Lobbying Bill, if...
View ArticleThe Scotland Act 2016
Had Scotland voted ‘Yes’ to independence on 18 September 2014, today would have been the day envisaged as ‘independence day’ (Christine commented on the proposed timetable in the Scotland on Sunday)....
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EU Referendum – official campaigns designated
Last month we blogged on the EU referendum timetable. On Wednesday 13 April (one day earlier than expected), the Electoral Commission published its decision on the designation of the official campaign...
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New Scottish Parliament powers in force from today
Followers of this blog will know that we have been keeping a close eye on the progress of the Scotland Act 2016, which devolves significant new powers to the Scottish Parliament. We covered the grant...
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Wildlife crime focus: responses in, questions answered?
Avid readers of the blog will have noticed our post earlier this month discussing a number of questions asked by MSPs on the subject of wildlife crime. The responses from Roseanna Cunningham MSP,...
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A hedge between keeps friendships keen
However, some neighbours are more frosty than friendly when it comes to hedges. So much so, that this month the Scottish Parliament commenced their post legislative scrutiny of the High Hedges...
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Scottish Independence Referendum: The Week So Far
It perhaps says something about the times when a full-blown row between the Scottish and UK Governments about whether there should be a second referendum on Scottish independence is only one of the...
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Order, Order! Parliament hangs in the balance
Hung parliaments used to be a rare political beast. Until today, only two UK parliamentary elections since 1929 had failed to deliver an absolute majority: the election of February 1974 (after which...
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The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill: The Impact on Scotland
With the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill currently making its journey through the House of Commons, Brodies’ Public Law team have issued a legal update on the Bill and, in particular, its potential...
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Scottish Parliament helps paves way for new pan EU Unitary Patent Court
The first ever truly pan EU patent system, the new Unitary Patent Court (‘the UPC’), is one step closer to becoming a reality as a result of the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee deciding to...
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