Seven sets of draft rules prepared by SCJC given legal effect during 2023/24 reporting period.

These rules are set out in the SCJC’s Annual Report 2023-24 and Programme 2024-25, published on 01 July, which also details the Council’s accounts and its achievements over the year.

Writing his foreword as Council Chair, the Lord President, the Rt. Hon. Lord Carloway, charted the Council’s progress in a range of rules requests in light of new legislation and policy initiatives, with new rules and amendments to existing rules implemented over a broad spectrum of subjects. 

The seven sets of draft rules given legal effect during 2023/24 were:

• The Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 and Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 Amendment) (Attendance at Hearings) 2023 (SSI 2023/168) was made on 31 May 2023 and came into force on 3 July 2023.  These new rules support the daily decisions made on whether hearings are heard in person or by electronic means, or as hybrid of the two. The ability to choose the most appropriate option reflects the outcomes from the public consultation undertaken by the Council.
• The Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994, Sheriff Appeal Court Rules and Sheriff Court Rules Amendment) (Miscellaneous) 2023 (SSI 2023/196) was made on 27 June 2023 and came into force on 2 October 2023.  It amended the existing rules on Reporting Restriction Orders in order to reinforce the need for reasons to be given when these orders are made.
• The Act of Sederunt (Summary Applications, Statutory Applications and Appeals etc. Rules 1999 and Taxation of Judicial Expenses Rules 2019 Amendment) (Telecommunications Infrastructure) 2023 (SSI 2023/223) was made on 9 August 2023 and came into force on 2 October 2023.  In situations where there is a consumer awaiting connection and an unresponsive landlord; these rules provide a mechanism for gaining reasonable access under the Electronic Communications Code in order to install telecommunications infrastructure.
• The Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 Amendment) (Payment and Electronic Money Institution Special Administration) 2024 (SSI 2024/75) was made on 12 March 2024 and came into force on 12 April 2024.  These rules provide a ‘special administrative procedure’ as a precautionary measure, in the unlikely event that any electronic payment institution that was based in Scotland was to get into financial difficulty and put the financial markets at risk.
  
• The Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 Amendment) (National Security Prevention and Investigation) 2024 (SSI 2024/75) was made on 19 March 2024 and came into force on 19 April 2024.  There is an existing court procedure used in the rare event an application is made by the intelligence services for ‘prevention and investigation measures’ in relation to terrorism under the 2011 Act.  This instrument has amended that existing procedure to also cover any equally rare applications seeking ‘prevention and investigation measures’ in regards to national security matters under the 2023 Act.  
  
  

  Fees Rules:

• The Act of Sederunt (Fees of Solicitors in the Court of Session, Sheriff Appeal Court and Sheriff Court) (Taxation of Judicial Expenses Rules) (Amendment) 2023  (SSI 2023/165) was made on 30 May 2023 and came into force on 30 June 2023.  These regulated fee tables are used to determine what a party who is successful in a civil action could reasonably expect to recover in an award of expenses. This amending fees instrument updated the unit cost used within the regulated table of fees by 9.75% so that the amounts recoverable reflect the underlying changes in the cost of living. It also made a comparable adjustment to the fee tables that still apply to cases initiated before the use of “unit costs” was introduced
• The Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) (Amendment) 2024 (SSI 2024/41) was made on 7 February 2024 and came into force on 22 March 2024.  These rules provided an uplift in the table of regulated fees that fix the rates to be charged by sheriff officers and messengers at arms. The accompanying policy note set out the justifications for making those changes.

 The Council’s Annual Report has been published together with the Annual Programme of Work for 2024/2025, which details how it will deliver its priorities for the next reporting year.