“A new report on funeral poverty has found funeral director and local authority costs should be more consistent and bereavement support more widely available.

The report by John Birrell, chair of the Scottish Working Group on Funeral Poverty, and Citizens Advice Scotland, highlighted factors that contribute to funeral poverty and called on the UK and Scottish Governments, the funeral industry, local authorities and others, to take action.

The independent report’s recommendations include:

• Ensuring social security funeral payments meet the real costs of a funeral
• Parity in burial and cremation charges charged by local authorities
• Licensing of funeral directors
• Encouraging people to talk about their own funeral wishes with their families
• A new national ‘Scottish Funeral Bond’ to standardise costs and allow more people to save for their own funeral”

More on this can be found here.

A Bill for an Act of the Scottish Parliament to amend the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 to make provision about an additional amount of tax to be chargeable in respect of certain transactions relating to dwellings.

Bill as introduced can be found here.

Explanatory guidance can be found here.

Scottish Parliament progress update can be found here.

A Bill for an Act of the Scottish Parliament to restate and amend the law relating to burial and cremation; to make provision about exhumation of human remains; to make provision in relation to the inspection and licensing of funeral directors; and for connected purposes. 

Bill as introduced can be found here.

Explanatory notes can be found here.

Scottish Parliament progress update can be found here.

My main interest concerns Diploma tutoring.

I hope to be able to publish an article on this in a couple of months time.

I have already spoken to a number of tutors at a number of Scottish universities about their experiences.

If you would like to contribute to this article, on a confidential basis, please contact me.

If you think your firm may require a private client locum solicitor, short or long term, or consultancy input please contact me at james@legalknowledgescotland.com

If you have had any difficulties in registering a death over the last few months and in particular since the new rules came into force can you please contact me.

I am intending to meet with an MSP to discuss these issues.

Issues include being unable to get an appointment with a Registrar for a number of days which then leads to delays.  Inverclyde for example. Doctor fails to sign the medical certificate.  The relative meets with the Registrar but he or she cannot cannot register the death until a signed medical certificate is produced.  A second appointment is then needed.  It is also not clear if a crematorium can make a provisional booking without a death being registered.

If you think your firm may require a private client locum solicitor, short or long term, or consultancy input please contact james@legalknowledgescotland.com

If you think your firm might require a private client locum solicitor please contact james@legalknowledgescotland.com

If your firm requires a private client locum solicitor please contact james@legalknowledgescotland.com

The May 2015 edition of Private Client Scotland is now available.  The ‘preview edition’ published in November 2014 can be found here. If you would like to subscribe to Private Client Scotland please email me at james@legalknowledgescotland.com

“In this edition the editorial looks at two manifesto pledges concerning the tax status of ‘non doms’ and a new inheritance tax relief and also the launch of the two new Scottish taxes. There is also an article on Revenue Scotland’s LBTT opinions policy.  Included in ‘Case reviews’ is the Judgement of Sheriff McCormick on the appointment of an attorney by an executor. ‘Professional updates’ include updates on the ‘Certification of Death (Scotland) Act’ and the Scottish Law Commission’s annual report. Lastly the ‘News items’ section includes stories that range from the average cost of a funeral to the introduction of ‘guardians’ in England and Wales for missing persons.”