CONCERNS have been raised over the Scottish Government's record on modernising the law in Scotland – with issues dating back to the start of devolution.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is under pressure to respond to claims by the Scottish Law Commission (SLC) and the Parliament's Justice Committee that there has been a "relatively low implementation rate" on law reforms.
In a letter addressed to Mr MacAskill, Justice Committee convener Christine Grahame queried delays in acting on recommended changes to contract, property and personal injury law, as well as addressing issues on Crown appeals and the age of criminal responsibility.
The SLC also claimed that instead of making it easier to modernise the law in Scotland, the formation of the Scottish Parliament has worsened the implementation rate.
The Justice Committee letter states: "The committee noted concerns from the SLC itself at what it saw as a relatively low implementation rate since the advent of devolution compared to other jurisdictions with law commissions, particularly in relation to reports concerning civil law. We have sympathy with those concerns.
"One of the perceived advantages of the Scottish Parliament when it was set up was that it was expected to provide far more time to discuss and agree proposals emanating from the SLC and others to modernise and simplify Scots law."
The letter seeks a response from Mr MacAskill on delays in implementing several SLC reports – some dating back as far as 1999. Malcolm McMillan, SLC chief executive, said: "Over the past few years, we have grown concerned about the implementation rate since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.
"You would expect that having a legislature in your own country would provide some room to do a bit more work on modernising the law of Scotland, but that doesn't appear to have been the case.
"We actually began to see that our implementation rate was going down rather than up. We looked at how England, Wales and Ireland were performing, as well as places like New Zealand which also has a law commission, and we felt our rate was dipping lower than the comparative bodies."
He added: "We very much welcome the interest of the Justice Committee in looking at the issue fully and taking it up with the Government.
"We ourselves have also raised these concerns with the Government and have been working with officials to see what can be done to implement more of our reports and there has been some progress recently."
Mr McMillan said many of the issues in the older reports may now be outdated and will have to be looked at again before the Government considers implementing them.
The letter from Ms Grahame also notes there has been discussion on the possibility of introducing a special legislative procedure which would allow technical, non-controversial SLC bills to be passed quickly.
She also said the committee would be prepared to help with the implementation of SLC reports by taking some forward as committee bills during this parliamentary session. The letter adds that, while a number of SLC reports have not been implemented, in some cases this has been because of varying opinions on their validity.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Government shares the commitment of the Justice Committee and the Scottish Law Commission to keeping the statute book up to date. As the committee letter notes, the Government has consulted on some Scottish Law Commission proposals where consultees had mixed views and as a result we have not implemented the reports.
"Where appropriate, we will consult on other reports put forward by the commission. We will continue to work closely with the commission."
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