The Scottish Law Commission has published a major report recommending substantial reform of the law of trusts in Scotland.

This is from the Scottish Law Commission.

“We publish today our Report on Trust Law.  Despite the prominence of trusts in Scots law, the institution is badly served by existing legislation.  The main statute, the Trusts (Scotland) Act 1921, is almost a century old: its structure and language have become antiquated, and the uses to which trusts are put have evolved over that time.  The Act has been heavily amended over the years, leading to a lack of clarity and practical difficulties for trustees and beneficiaries.  The recommendations in our Report will affect all those who use trusts and our draft Trusts (Scotland) Bill is aimed at providing a modern system of trust law, allowing Scotland to compete more effectively in the global trusts world.”

More on this, including the full report can be found here.

The Scottish Law Commission has published a Discussion Paper on the criminal liability of partnerships.

The paper follows a fatal fire at the Rosepark nursing home in Uddingston in 2004 after which the Crown’s attempts to prosecute the partnership (for health and safety offences) failed on the basis the partnership had been dissolved and therefore no longer had any legal existence.

The paper considers ways of preventing the frustration of prosecutions of partnerships due to their dissolution and also looks at the circumstances in which individual partners may be held criminally liable for offences committed by a partnership questioning whether legislation should be introduced to make it easier to prosecute partners as individuals.

The SLC’s news release is here.

The Discussion Paper is available here.