February 2016 – Succession Law Changes – Part 1

The Succession (Scotland) Act 2016 (“the 2016 Act”) was passed by the Scottish Parliament last month (although none of it is yet in force). It is not one of those Acts that makes sweeping changes to the general law of succession. The most recent Act which did so was...

December 2015 – Scottish Rate Of Income Tax

Background  Section 80C of the Scotland Act 1998 provides: “(1) The Scottish Parliament may by resolution (a “Scottish rate resolution”) set the Scottish rate for the purpose of calculating the rates of income tax to be paid by Scottish taxpayers.” It then refers one...

November 2015 – Sorting Out Consumer Disputes

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 came into force last month. It is largely the result of a review of the law about consumer rights conducted jointly by the (English) Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission. The review culminated in a Joint Report, with...

October 2015 – Private Tenancy Rent Control

Introduction  The Bullet Point Update (No. 4) for April this year said something about changes in the offing for private rented sector tenancies. Things have moved on a bit since then and the changes now included in The Private Housing Tenancies (Scotland) Bill 2015,...