Background Part 3 - Complaints Section 80 – Role of the independent advisory panel
198.This section amends section 41 of the 2007 Act to add the Consumer Panel to the list of mandatory consultees where the Scottish Ministers propose to make regulations to amend the powers or duties of the Commission.
199.This section also amends paragraph 11A of schedule 1 of the 2007 Act (role of the independent advisory panel). It allows the panel to express views on such matters relevant to the Commission’s functions as the panel considers appropriate (rather than as the Commission’s directs). It also allows the panel to make recommendations to the Commission in relation to any of the Commission’s functions and to relevant professional organisations relating to any of their functions conferred by virtue of the Act. It also places a statutory duty on the Commission to ensure the Consumer Panel is adequately funded and resourced to be able to discharge its functions. Furthermore, it confers the function of making recommendations to the Lord President (in relation to the Lord President’s functions under this Act) on the panel.