Senior judge criticises quality of Scottish legislation

THE standard of some legislation being produced by the Scottish Parliament has been strongly criticised by a senior judge.

Lord Marnoch said difficulties in interpreting a range of statutes were causing costly and time-consuming litigation, as well as splitting judicial opinion.

His comments came as appeal judges in the Court of Session in Edinburgh grappled with the intricacies of changes in the law governing care services.

A second set of bridging arrangements had to be introduced for the changeover of the 2001 act to the 2010 act because the first was found to be “incomplete”. In a case about a nursery losing its licence, Lord Marnoch read the provisions in a different way to his colleagues on the appeal bench.