The Society’s committees have been working on a number of Scottish Parliament and UK Parliament Bills and consultations, including the Policing and Crime Bill, non-compete clauses and the CMA’s Report on the Legal Services Market.
The Criminal Law Committee has responded to the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee’s call for evidence in considering its approach to the Legislative Consent Motion on the Policing and Crime Bill.
We are generally supportive of the areas of the Bill where the consent of the Scottish Parliament is required. These areas include: Police Maritime Powers; Cross border powers of arrest; Restoration of littering powers and Firearms.
With particular reference to the cross border powers of arrest we noted that currently there are no powers of arrest available in urgent investigations where an individual is alleged to have committed a serious offence in one UK jurisdiction, where no arrest warrant has been issued and the suspect has turned up unexpectedly in another UK jurisdiction. The provisions at Clause 105 of the Bill will now provide for this in respect of specified offences to be set out in secondary legislation. We support these provisions.
The full response is available to read on the law reform section of the website.
The Employment Law Committee has responded to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skill’s call for evidence on non-compete clauses.
We note that non-compete clauses are used in a very wide range of sectors and situations. Properly drafted, such restrictions will protect the interests of the employer without unfairly restricting the employee’s ability to compete. Unduly restrictive clauses will not be upheld by the courts.
The present system, where clauses are routinely included in contracts but do not routinely require to be enforced by the Courts, appears to be working satisfactorily. If the matter does require to be considered by a Court, the legal principles are applied to the facts of the case. This should result in there being restrictions imposed only in appropriate circumstances and for appropriate periods, to protect the legitimate interests of the business where these would have an adverse effect on the employee made subject to the restriction.
We believe that restricting the use of non-compete clauses could have severe adverse effects on businesses and the protection they receive through the law.
The full consultation response is available to read on the law reform section of the website.
