Judicial Factors (Scotland) Bill: islands communities impact assessment

Step two – Gather your data and identify your stakeholders

What data is available about the current situation in the islands?

Judicial factors are appointed by the court and supervised by the Accountant of Court, an employee of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). As at 2022, there were 64 active judicial factories supervised by the Accountant, and there have been an annual average of 7 applications for appointment of a judicial factor for the years 2018 to 2022.

While the Accountant provides a high-level list of the number and types of judicial factories information about the type of property and its location is not publicly available. It is considered that it would be disproportionate to interrogate the inventories of existing judicial factories to ascertain property that might be held on an island, particularly given the nature of the reforms proposed.

Do you need to consult?

No. Given the nature of the reforms and the fact that these would apply to property held anywhere in Scotland in the same way, it is considered that there is no need to consult further.

How does any existing data differ between islands?

N/A

Are there any existing design features or mitigations in place?

The policy impact will be no different between the island community and mainland Scotland and, as a consequence, there is no need for mitigations.