Deployment of judiciary
55.Sections 30 to 33 enable the Lord President to deploy and re-allocate sheriffs principal, sheriffs and summary sheriffs across sheriffdoms, and, in the case of sheriffs and summary sheriffs, across sheriff court districts.
Section 30 – Power to authorise a sheriff principal to act in another sheriffdom
56.Section 30 permits the Lord President to authorise the sheriff principal of one sheriffdom to exercise all or some of the functions of sheriff principal of another sheriffdom in any of the circumstances set out in subsection (1). Subsection (6) removes any doubt that a temporary sheriff principal may be asked to act in another sheriffdom while appointed.
Section 31 – Power to direct a sheriff or summary sheriff to act in another sheriffdom
57.Section 31 provides that a sheriff or summary sheriff may be directed by the Lord President to perform the judicial functions that that individual already performs in another sheriffdom or sheriffdoms until the Lord President directs otherwise (subsections (1) and (3)). It also provides that this may be instead of, or in addition to, the performance of the duties that that individual already performs in the sheriffdom in which they are based (subsection (2)) or, where that individual has already been directed to act in another sheriffdom, to that individual’s duties in that sheriffdom (subsection (4)).
Section 32 – Power to re-allocate sheriffs principal, sheriffs and summary sheriffs between sheriffdoms
58.This section enables the Lord President permanently to transfer sheriffs principal, sheriffs, and summary sheriffs between sheriffdoms. (So far as sheriffs are concerned, this power re-enacts the existing provision in section 14(4) of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971.)
Section 33 – Allocation of sheriffs and summary sheriffs to sheriff court districts
59.Section 33 updates and restates section 14(3) of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971 and extends its provisions to summary sheriffs. It provides that the Lord President is to designate in a direction a particular sheriff court district in which a sheriff or summary sheriff is to sit. Further it allows the Lord President to move a sheriff or summary sheriff to a different district within the sheriffdom by designation in a direction. Subsection (3) clarifies the interaction between the power in subsection (1) with the power of the sheriff principal to make temporary special provisions under section 27(3)(b), giving precedence to the sheriff principal’s use of that power.
