Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:26 pm on 10 January 2001.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Gordon Jackson Gordon Jackson Labour 4:26, 10 January 2001

Absolutely, and I will come to that. At the moment, I am simply pointing out what, at first blush, is an argument. I do so for a number of reasons. Mr Hamilton says that the responsibility lies with the legal profession. He says that the lawyers missed those rights, the Keeper of the Registers misled certain people and that we should not pass legislation under the guise of protecting the unfortunate tenant, the real purpose of which is to look after and cover up for what has become known in this debate as the sloppy solicitor. There is a remedy—one could sue the solicitor and the Keeper of the Registers, so one was not robbing a landlord of something that he had bought and paid for.

I must say that at first, that view did not seem unattractive and it raised in my mind problems about the ECHR. I am glad that the Deputy Minister for Justice has been asked to deal with that, because when the Justice and Home Affairs Committee asked the Scottish Executive justice department officials about it they were less than convincing. I am sure that the minister will wish to deal with that point.

Despite Mr Hamilton's argument, I came to the conclusion, along with everybody here, that the bill is entirely appropriate. While what Mr Hamilton says has superficial logic—the Justice and Home Affairs Committee saw that—it is, at the end of the day, disingenuous and artificial for a number of reasons. As we all now know, such payments should have disappeared a long time ago. Feudal casualties went in 1914. I was interested in the search that Alasdair Morgan carried out—I was not as diligent—because we do not know why leasehold casualties did not disappear at the same time as feudal casualties.