Thank you for giving us the opportunity to answer questions that the committee might have about the bill. I appreciate that you have received briefing information, but I thought that it would be helpful if I added some explanation about who we are and the organisation that we represent.
I am deputy keeper to the signet, which means that I am, in effect, the president of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet, which is known as the WS Society. In that capacity, I chair the board of trustees of the WS dependants’ annuity fund. Simon Mackintosh is collector—in other words, administrator—of that fund.
First, what is a writer to the signet? Originally, writers to the signet were exactly that: they were those who were able to write and were particularly trusted, who undertook work on behalf of the Crown. The first recorded use of the signet—in other words, the seal of the king—was in 1369, and in 1532, when James V established the system that we know today and the Court of Session came into being, writers to the signet were included as members of the College of Justice. Eventually, those trusted clerks became what are now solicitors, and the WS Society is the professional body for writers to the signet. We are probably the oldest professional body in the world, which is quite a distinction for a relatively small group of Scottish lawyers.
What is the relevance of that history today? With the introduction of the Law Society of Scotland in 1949, the WS Society’s regulatory role ceased. We had to develop our modern purposes, ensuring that the society has relevance that will allow us to continue into the future by being of interest to young lawyers.
I believe that we have been successful in doing that. The WS Society continues to grow. We are now a society of around 1,000 lawyers; more than 100 new writers to the signet have been welcomed in the past three years. They reflect the make-up of the solicitor profession in Scotland more generally, in terms of gender and ethnic background. The society now includes student members and affiliate members as well as writers to the signet, so it includes all ages, from law students to our most senior retired member, who is more than 100 years old.
What does the society do? We provide legal training, support in the form of library services in electronic and traditional paper formats, research and drafting services for our members and other lawyers, and charitable trust administration.
The society owns the iconic Signet Library on Parliament Square, and maintenance of that building and its historic and valuable treasures has become an important part of our purposes. In recent years, we opened up the building more generally to the public: Colonnades is an award-winning destination for afternoon tea, and we are building a series of cultural events that are open to the public—the new enlightenment project—which consists of lectures, discussions and performances.
All of that, combined with the history to which I have referred and the fact that becoming a WS still requires the taking of an oath before an officer of state—the keeper of the signet, who is currently Lord Mackay of Clashfern—makes the WS Society attractive to lawyers who are interested in what we represent and the focus on high standards in legal services that we promote through our purposes.
Having explained what writers to the signet and the WS Society are, I will speak briefly about the WS dependants’ annuity fund, which is the separate and distinct body that is the subject of the bill. Historically, the WS Society looked after writers to the signet and their widows, who might have fallen on hard times, by making ad hoc charitable donations. That was formalised in 1803 when the original WS widows’ fund was started up—all WS at that time, of course, were men—to provide benefits to the widows of deceased writers to the signet. Over the years, the fund was changed and widened to provide support for orphans and other dependants as well, and then later to take account of the fact that women were becoming writers to the signet, from 1976, and more recently to provide benefits for the civil partners of deceased contributors to the fund.
Until 1989, membership of the WS Society brought with it membership of the dependants’ annuity fund, and it was seen as one of the benefits of being a writer to the signet that you contributed to the fund. However, in 1989, in large part due to changes in the tax regime that meant that the fund would become a less attractive proposition for new members contributing to it, the fund was closed to new members. Since that date, membership of the WS Society has continued to grow, as I have explained, but those who have become WS since then are not contributors to the fund. Equally, not all the contributors remain writers to the signet; some have resigned their commission, so the two bodies are separate in that respect.
Although the society’s membership is growing, the contributors to the fund are inevitably ageing. There are now no contributors to the fund who are younger than their early 50s, and the oldest is over 100. The trustees’ aim is to ensure that the funds held by the dependants’ annuity fund are administered in such a way that annuities—annual payments—will continue to be made to the widows and widowers of the contributors to the fund, until the death of the last of them. That has to be done in a way that represents fairness between the generations, so that the last surviving widows or widowers do not receive a disproportionate payment.
I hope that that explanation has been helpful in providing some background. We are happy to answer questions.