Commentary on Sections Part 2 – Regulation of Licensed Legal Services Ceasing to regulate Section 39 – Surrender of authorisation
83.Section 39 deals with the situation where an approved regulator ceases to regulate. It allows an approved regulator to surrender its authorisation, with the prior agreement of the Scottish Ministers, under the procedure in schedule 7. Subsection (3) provides that an approved regulator must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the effective regulation of its licensed providers is not interrupted by the surrender of its authorisation. For example, this may involve ensuring that the licensed providers have sufficient time to find and transfer to an alternative approved regulator before authorisation is surrendered.
84.Subsection (4) states that if an approved regulator surrenders its authorisation to regulate, it also loses its status as an approved regulator. This reflects the two-stage process involved in a body becoming a functioning approved regulator – it must first be approved (section 7), and then given authorisation to regulate by the Scottish Ministers (section 10). In giving up authorisation, both authorisation and approval are removed.