The Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) Regulations 1996

Duty solicitors

5.—(1) The Board shall make arrangements for there to be available, in each sheriff court district and district court district, at all times throughout the year, when required, solicitors, hereinafter referred to as “duty solicitors”, for the following purposes:–

(a) attending (other than in the circumstances specified in sub-paragraph (b) below), whether in person or by means of a representative who is a solicitor, at any such identification parade as is referred to in section 21(4)(b) of the Act at which the services of the duty solicitor are required;

(b) attending on any person who has been taken into custody on a charge of murder, attempted murder or culpable homicide and who requires the services of the duty solicitor, and advising and acting for such a person until he is admitted to bail or is committed until liberated in due course of law;

(c) advising and acting for any person in custody (other than a person referred to in sub-paragraph (b) above) whose case is being prosecuted under solemn procedure, on the day when that person is first brought before a sheriff for examination and thereafter until he is admitted to bail or is committed until liberated in due course of law;

(d) advising and acting for any person who is being prosecuted under summary procedure and who is either in custody or has been liberated under section 22(1)(a) of the 1995 Act (liberation by police on undertaking to appear) on the day when that person is first brought before a court to answer to any complaint and thereafter–

(i) until the conclusion of the first diet at which he is called upon to plead and in connection with any application for liberation following upon that diet; and

(ii) where he has tendered a plea of guilty at that diet, until his case is finally disposed of.

(2) The references to “advising and acting” in regulation 5(1) shall include the services of the duty solicitor at any preliminary plea to the competency or relevancy of the petition or complaint and at any plea in bar of trial or any mental health proof.

(3) Where a duty solicitor is available by virtue of arrangements made by the Board in accordance with sub-paragraph (d) of paragraph (1) above, section 31(1) of the Act shall not apply, and criminal legal aid for the purposes specified in the said sub-paragraph (d) shall be provided only by such solicitor.