22.Section 2 sets out the objectives of the regulation of legal services. These are referred to as “the regulatory objectives” throughout the Act.
23.The regulatory objectives are a high-level statement of both what the regulation of legal services is to achieve and how it is to be achieved. While section 2 sets out the objectives, section 3 sets out how they are to be applied. The two sections must be read together as section 3 elaborates on several of the concepts that are contained in section 2.
24.While some of the regulatory objectives are the same as those that were originally set in section 1 of the 2010 Act, they have been added to and now incorporate key aspects of the Better Regulation Principles,(1) the Consumer Principles(2) and Human Rights (PANEL) Principles.(3) These can be found in section 2(1)(b) to (d) (as read with section 3(2) to (4)).
25.In general terms, a regulatory authority must exercise its regulatory functions in a way that is compatible with the regulatory objectives and in a way that it considers most appropriate to meet those objectives. Later provisions in the Act deal with what happens where a regulator does not exercise its regulatory functions in such a way.
26.The regulatory authorities to which these objectives apply are set out in section 3(5). These are the Court of Session, the Lord President, the Commission, the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal, and category 1 and category 2 regulators (which include those bodies, such as the Law Society and the Faculty that directly regulate legal services providers). It also includes approved regulators of licensed providers under Part 2 of the 2010 Act.
Background Part 1 – Regulatory Framework Regulatory objectives Sections 2 and 3 – The regulatory objectives and their application