Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations consolidate with amendments and revoke the Civil Legal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 1987 and the Regulations amending those Regulations.

The main amendments are as follows:–

(a)

in consequence of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”)–

(i)

the definition of “legal representative” has been amended to include a person having parental responsibilities in relation to a child (regulation 2(1));

(ii)

in regulation 6(1) the previous reference to “parent or guardian” has been substituted to allow an application for advice and assistance to be made on behalf of a child by any person having parental responsibilities in relation to the child;

(iii)

provision is made for legal aid to be made available for urgent work in relation to various orders under section 11 of the 1995 Act and for Child Welfare Hearings under the Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 (regulation 18(2)(j), (n), (p) and (q));

(b)

income-based jobseeker’s allowance has been included as one of the specified exceptions to the right to prior payment out of property recovered or preserved (regulation 33(a)(v));

(c)

income-based jobseeker’s allowance, a back to work bonus treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance and any payment made under the Earnings Top-up Scheme are excluded from the computation of income (paragraph 5 of Schedule 2); and

(d)

any back to work bonus treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance is excluded from the computation of capital (paragraph 8(b) of Schedule 3).