Debate ensues as committee begins amending Legal Services Bill

THE task of amending the Scottish Government's Legal Services Bill began on Tuesday, as MSPs on the justice committee began closely examining the legislation.

The discussion began with Labour's Bill Butler, who tabled an amendment to restrict non-lawyer ownership to 25 per cent.

"The risk that is associated with getting things wrong and going too far is enormous, because there will be no going back after the changes have been made," he said.

"Thus, if firms were allowed to have 75 per cent external ownership, and the approach was subsequently found to be a disaster, it would be virtually impossible to reduce the level of external ownership. In contrast, it would be easy to go further with future legislation to increase the percentage of non-solicitor ownership."

The SNP's Stewart Maxwell called on the new firms' regulator to decide the balance of ownership.

He said: "If, hypothetically speaking, the Law Society of Scotland became an approved regulator and decided it wished to regulate only the firms that met a particular standard – 25 per cent outside ownership, a ratio of 51 per cent to 49 per cent, or any other standard that it wished to put in place – it could do so. It would therefore be much more appropriate to leave the approved regulator to decide on that issue rather than to set it out in the bill."

The Lib Dems' Robert Brown said the 75 per cent restriction would "wreck" the principals of the bill, but Labour's James Kelly supported the restriction.

Mr Kelly said: "Although it recognises there is a job to be done in opening up firms and allowing them to attract external capital and to set up their businesses to exploit the economic opportunities afforded by new legal structures, (the] proposal also seeks to ensure the solicitors remain the majority owners of the firm.

"It therefore protects Scots law and the legal profession's independence."