{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/act-of-sederunt-messengers-at-arms-and-sheriff-officers-rules-1991/article-14",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/act-of-sederunt-messengers-at-arms-and-sheriff-officers-rules-1991/article-14.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1991/1397",
  "legislation_title": "Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) 1991",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/act-of-sederunt-messengers-at-arms-and-sheriff-officers-rules-1991",
  "path": "article/14",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "14",
  "heading": "Official functions",
  "text": "(1) Without prejudice to rule 16 in the First Schedule to the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907, rule 11 of the Act of Sederunt (Summary Cause Rules, Sheriff Court) 1976, section 91(2) of the Act of 1987, and any functions under any other enactment, an officer of court may exercise the following official functions–\n(a) subject to paragraph (2) below, collect any debt constituted by decree or recoverable by summary warrant;\n(b) execute diligence; or\n(c) execute a citation or serve any document required under any legal process,\nin any place in respect of which he holds a commission as an officer of court.\n(2) A debt constituted by decree or recoverable by summary warrant may be collected–\n(a) in the case of a decree or summary warrant of the sheriff court, by a sheriff officer; or\n(b) in the case of a decree or summary warrant of the Court of Session, by a messenger-at-arms.\n(3) Without prejudice to rule 16 in the First Schedule to the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907, rule 11 of the Act of Sederunt (Summary Cause Rules, Sheriff Court) 1976, section 91(2) of the Act of 1987, and any functions under any other enactment, a person who holds a commission as a sheriff officer may practise as a sheriff officer only in the sheriffdom or district of a sheriffdom in respect of which he has been granted a commission under rule 8(5) above.\n(4) An officer of court may refuse to execute a citation, serve any document required under any legal process or execute diligence where–\n(a) the prescribed, or reasonable, expenses have not been tendered to him or secured by or on behalf of the person instructing him; or\n(b) it is not reasonably practicable for him to carry out his instructions and this has been intimated forthwith on receipt of the instructions to the person instructing him.\n(5) An officer of court may not–\n(a) form a company within the meaning of section 735(1) of the Companies Act 1985 for the purpose of exercising any of his official functions; or\n(b) exercise any of his official functions as an employee of a company within the meaning of section 735(1) of the Companies Act 1985.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "1907 c. 51 (7 Edw. 7); the First Schedule was substituted by S.I. 1983/747."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "S.I. 1976/476; rule 11 was substituted by S.I. 1980/455."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "1985 c. 6."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "ssi/2013/23",
      "affecting_title": "Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) (Amendment) 2013"
    },
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "ssi/2013/23",
      "affecting_title": "Act of Sederunt (Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers Rules) (Amendment) 2013"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/1397/article/14",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T14:42:44.836530+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}