Businesses 'to pay millions in supreme court tax'

• PM plans to create new Supreme Court separate from House of Lords

• Lord Hope believes increased cost would be met by raising civil court fees

• Lord Cullen wants to refer supreme court proposals to parliament select committee

Key quote: "This cost would have to be met and I believe it would be met in Scotland by a 1 per cent increase on all fees paid in civil cases. It is without doubt a government stealth tax on the civil courts." Lord Hope, former lord president of the Court of Session.

Story in full: SCOTS business will be hit with another government stealth tax to pay for Tony Blair’s controversial plan to create an American-style supreme court, a senior Scottish Law Lord has predicted.

Lord Hope believes that the cost of the Prime Minister’s desire for sweeping constitutional reform could be an extra financial penalty to be shouldered by entrepreneurs.

The former lord president of the Court of Session said: "Small business will be hit very hard by this."

Mr Blair wants to create a supreme court independent of the House of Lords, based in its own premises, as part of the government’s desire to "modernise" Britain.

Lord Hope said the running costs of such a venture would amount to millions of pounds every year, with the bill being pushed back down to small businesses and individuals who bring civil cases.

Currently the cost of hearing appeals to the House of Lords - the highest court in the land - is an average 500,000 a year.

Lord Hope said the "horror of a new building - just think of the Scottish Parliament building" could see that bill rocket to anywhere between 1.6 million and 6.5 million, with additional operational costs of 4.3 million.

He went on: "This cost would have to be met and I believe it would be met in Scotland by a 1 per cent increase on all fees paid in civil cases.

"It is without doubt a government stealth tax on the civil courts."

Meanwhile, in a second attack, Lord Cullen of Whitekirk, the Lord Justice General of Scotland, is due on Monday to spearhead a move by peers to refer the proposals for a supreme court to a select committee of parliament.

He will claim that a supreme court would be a retrograde step that would threaten the separate identity of Scottish law.