Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022

4 (1) Any requirement (however expressed) that a document—

(a) be put on the walls, doors or any other part of a court building (whether internal or external), or

(b) be made publicly available in any other way within a court building,

may be fulfilled instead by the document’s being made publicly available through the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website.

(2) But sub-paragraph (1) does not apply to a document if it is of a type that—

(a) the Lord President of the Court of Session, or

(b) the Lord Justice General,

has directed that sub-paragraph (1) does not apply to.

(3) Where a document is to be made publicly available through the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website by virtue of this paragraph, it is to so be made available in accordance with—

(a) any direction issued by—

(i) the Lord President of the Court of Session, or

(ii) the Lord Justice General, and

(b) (subject to any necessary modifications) any enactment about—

(i) how a step mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of sub-paragraph (1) is to be taken in relation to the document, or

(ii) the length of time for which the document is to be made publicly available in a way described by those paragraphs.

(4) A direction under sub-paragraph (3)(a) may, in particular, provide that a document is to be made available only in a redacted form.

(5) If an enactment provides for an alternative to taking a step mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of sub-paragraph (1) as a means of achieving an outcome (for example, advertising an application in a newspaper as a means of intimating it), nothing in this paragraph precludes the taking of that alternative step to achieve the outcome.

(6) In this paragraph, “the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website” means the website maintained by, or on behalf of, the Service with the internet domain name scotcourts.gov.uk.