Seòmar agus comataidhean

The committee has been considering a suggestion from the Faculty of Procurators of Caithness that there is a need to set out a specific complaints process in the legislation. It is proposed that the complaint would first be to the Accountant of Court. If the person or body with a complaint is unsatisfied with the outcome, there would then be a role for the court. To help with the committee’s deliberations, if, for example, one family member had an issue with how another family member as judicial factor was handling the estate, is there an obvious route in the bill for that first family member to express those concerns?

Section 6 of the bill creates a new requirement that notice of the appointment of a judicial factor must be registered in an existing public register called the register of inhibitions. Is that a good policy approach or can any of the panel see difficulties with it? Are there any viable alternative approaches? Also, is it your understanding of the bill that an inhibition is created via registration in the context of section 6?

Sorry, did you just say that it was never paid?

One policy argument supporting the change of approach to caution in section 5 of the bill is that, when a professional is appointed to the role, professional indemnity insurance provides a suitable alternative to obtaining a specialist bond of caution. Do any of the witnesses want to comment on whether the scope of their professional indemnity cover protects those with an interest in the estate to the same extent as a bond of caution does?

Good morning, panel. In response to the committee’s call for views, the centre for Scots law at the University of Aberdeen and R3 said that they thought the threshold for requiring caution, in section 5, is set too high. Does the centre for Scots law want to explain its reasoning, or does anyone else on the panel wish to comment on the policy merits of the proposed threshold?

Is it possible for non-governmental legal intervention to tackle SLAPPs?

Non-governmental—so, as in the example just given.

That is correct, yes.

I suggest that we write to the Scottish Government to ask when its latest review of information sources and decisions relating to the pause in or withdrawal of Covid-19 guidance took place, and what the outcome of that review was.

We could also write to stakeholders to seek their views on the action called for in the petition. Those stakeholders could include the Royal College of Nursing, Scottish Care and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland. We could also write to the Care Inspectorate to ask how “adequate and suitable” ventilation is defined in practice and how it assesses and enforces the ventilation standards.

I have a couple of small questions. How are SLAPPs identified, and what differences are there between SLAPPs and legitimate cases?