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Spotlight on: Legal
Citizens advice bureaux are a key part of the wider landscape of publicly funded legal advice, helping clients with thousands of legal issues each year and resolving thousands of issues before they reach the legal stage. Bureaux operate nine in-court advice projects across the country and represent clients at thousands of tribunals and court cases each year.
News
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25 Jun 2023
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25 Apr 2022
by Andrew Fraser, CAS Strong Communities team.
This article was first published in the Herald on 25 April 2022.
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17 Jun 2023
by Isla McIntosh, Manager of the CAS Strong Communities team.
This article was first published i the Herald on 17 June 2023.
Publications
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Modernising Consumer Markets
Publication date: July 2018
CAS welcomes the Consumer Green Paper and a stronger push by the UK government for greater simplicity, transparency and fairness for those that purchase and use goods and services.
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Publication date: August 2023
CAS has responded to the Equality, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee's call for views on the Legal Services Regulation (Scotland) Bill.
In our response:
› CAS reiterates our view that the Roberton model of a single independent regulator would deliver the greatest improvements for consumers in terms of transparency, accountability, and clarity of process. We underline our disappointment that the Bill has disregarded this model in favour of adding more layers of complexity to the existing landscape.
› We express our disappointment that the promise of a regulatory regime with consumers at its heart does not seem to be delivered in the substance of the draft Bill – with many opportunities missed to strengthen the consumer interest.
› We call for a clearer statutory role for consumer representation on the proposed regulatory committees (as distinct from generic lay representation), as well as consumer involvement in setting minimum standards for regulators.
› We query the rationale for affording a lesser degree of scrutiny and accountability to current category 2 regulators in the draft Bill.
› We welcome measures aimed at streamlining the complaints process including reducing complaints handling time, extending the remit to non-regulated for-profit providers, and introducing hybrid complaints. However, we caution that the retention of various layers and channels a complaint can take fails to deliver a simpler pathway for consumers, and we express concern about the removal of compensation for conduct complaints, as well as removal of the right to appeal SLSC decisions to an external body.
› We welcome the expanded remit of the SLSC’s Consumer Panel but caution against the panel being seen as the catch all consumer scrutiny forum without increased resources to enable the panel to discharge these functions.
› Regarding ministerial oversight, we call for greater consideration of the evidence sources for these interventions to be triggered, and the capacity this may require from the named bodies as well as consumer bodies fielding this data.
› We call for urgent clarity regarding the definitions of ‘fee, gain and reward’, upon which third sector liability for entity regulation hinges. The variability of definitions of restricted and unrestricted legal services also poses concerns for the advice sector and we call for statutory consultation with these providers in the event of any change being considered.
› We welcome the intention of the draft Bill to stimulate diversification in the legal services market, but we remain unclear how or whether the current provisions would enable this in practice. It remains difficult to envisage how the provisions around ABS and practicing restrictions might address the significant gaps in provision which CAS has repeatedly highlighted, without corresponding consideration of the pressing issue of legal aid reform.
To read our full response download here.
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Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill
Publication date: July 2023
Citizens Advice Scotland has provided written evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee in relation to the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill
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Publication date: April 2023
On 14 March 2023, Citizens Advice Scotland's Strong Communities Team gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament Equality Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee's session on Access to Justice. This supporting evidence was submitted in writing afterwards.
