Miller Samuel Hill Brown Solicitors Blog

With COP26 having now begun in Glasgow, we at Miller Samuel Hill Brown have been considering the impact of our business operations on the environment, along with many other business and individuals across the United Kingdom and the world. While as a law firm in the services sector our impact is minimal when compared with other sectors (such as manufacturing), that is no excuse to avoid making change ourselves. We have therefore considered what further steps we can take as we work towards minimising our impact on our shared environment. As a result of this review, we have redrafted and updated our environmental policy, the centrepiece of which is our ambitious target to be a net-zero firm by 2035, 10 years ahead of the Scottish Government’s target for Scotland to be net-zero by 2045. We are already taking steps towards that goal and are confident that we will surpass our target.

It has been quite a wait since it was recommended by Sheriff Principal Taylor in his 2013  Review of Expenses and Funding of Civil Litigation in Scotland – but cost shifting has finally arrived.

As the UK’s vaccination programme continues and the threat posed by Covid-19 subsides, the Scottish Government has begun rolling back the emergency legislation previously enacted to deal with the pandemic. Most notably, almost all remaining legal restrictions on social distancing have been lifted. However, some parts of the two main pieces of non-public health legislation: the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act 2020, have been extended again, while other measures within those acts will be expired.

The local authorities are routinely enforcing access rights against residential, commercial and estate owners. It is therefore important for property owners to know their rights and responsibilities when it comes the Access Rights.