The Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2006

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Regulations 2003 (“the principal Regulations”) so as to provide that–

(a)assistance by way of representation under Part II of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 (“the 1986 Act”) is available for court hearings where an offender’s probation order is reviewed (regulation 3);

(b)assistance by way of representation under Part II of the 1986 Act is available for accused persons, subject to their satisfying the means and merits tests in a sheriff court which has been designated as a summary justice pilot court, at sentencing, where criminal legal aid has not been granted in terms of section 24 of the 1986 Act (regulations 4 and 6);

(c)assistance by way of representation under Part II of the 1986 Act is available for accused persons appearing from custody in a sheriff court which has been designated as a summary justice pilot court until either the conclusion of the first diet at which the accused is called upon to plead and in connection with any application for liberation following upon that diet or, where he has tendered a plea of guilty at that diet and where there has been no grant of criminal legal aid, until his case is finally disposed of. This may include the services of solicitors at any preliminary plea to the competency or relevancy of the complaint and at any plea in bar of trial or any mental health proof (regulation 5);

(d)assistance by way of representation under Part II of the 1986 Act for accused persons appearing from custody in a sheriff court which has been designated as a summary justice pilot court is available without their being required to satisfy either the merits tests set out in regulation 7 of the principal Regulations or the financial limits under sections 8 and 11(2) of the 1986 Act (regulations 6 and 7); and

(e)following the tendering of a not guilty plea and the refusal by the Scottish Legal Aid Board of a criminal legal aid application, where there has then been a change of plea, application for assistance by way of representation may be made to the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Such applications are subject to the merits and means tests as provided by the 1986 Act and the principal Regulations (regulations 5 and 6).