Public Law Lawyers

Burness Paull’s public law team is known for its strength and expertise in judicial review advice and litigation as well as in a range of statutory appeals.

Our particular strength lies in acting for the entire spectrum of parties – from individual challengers, pressure groups, regulated licence holders and Government contractors to local and central Scottish and UK Government, the Scottish Parliament, various Commissions and Commissioners, Audit Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

Working seamlessly across regulated sectors including education, police, energy, regulated professions and statutory ombudsmen is our speciality.

We are incisive, strategic and pragmatic. We will work with you to raise or defend cases that are worth it and help you sidestep the ones that are not. We pride ourselves in using our encyclopaedic knowledge of the law in creative and innovative ways for tangible results.

Our expertise in statutory investigations and public or parliamentary inquiries collectively dates back over twenty years, providing us with one of Scotland’s most experienced teams in this area. This experience is further enhanced by the firm’s considerable expertise within its Employment, Health & Safety and Environmental practice teams.

Our team members have acted as external solicitors to major public inquiries (including the UK Magnox Inquiry, which reported in 2021). They have also represented core participants and key witnesses in many of the recent major inquiries, including the Edinburgh Trams Inquiry, the Stockline Inquiry and the Holyrood Inquiry. Most recently our team has been providing advice in connection with the Scottish Parliament’s Inquiry into the Scottish Governments’ handling of harassment complaints.

Burness Paull’s combined experience in advising on a full spectrum of administrative law matters across Scotland, the UK and Europe is market-leading.

We understand from first-hand experience that administrative law impacts every aspect of how the Government and the wider public sector interacts and contracts with business, whether it’s litigating, decision-making or regulating.

Our decades of experience in working both in and alongside the institutions of government across the UK, advising NDPBS, regulatory bodies and statutory officeholders provides us with a deep insight into how these institutions work and think. This in turn gives us a strategic advantage in advising third parties who interact with government – we understand your business imperatives and how to deliver these in a political and regulated context.

If you are a third party who interacts with government we can give you a strategic advantage – we understand how to deliver your business imperatives in a political and regulated context.

Members of Burness Paull’s public law team have both worked within and advised the Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments over a number of years. This has included advising the Scottish Parliament on its information law policies and procedures.

Our constitutional knowledge has been applied most recently for our clients on the once in a generation constitutional changes including Brexit and potential implications of a Scottish Independence Referendum.

Our public law team includes two solicitors who have been involved in drafting Bills for the Scottish Parliament. The depth of our expertise has covered drafting provisions for Members' Bills, Private Bills, UK Bills and European legislation from the security of third country flights to legislation on chambers of commerce in Afghanistan.

Our team’s expertise has also been sought by Members of the UK Parliament in challenging election laws, advising the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority which regulates Westminster MPs’ expenses and behaviour, advising Members of the Scottish Parliament in connection with standards and conduct issues and advising the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland (and previously the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner) in relation to complaints about MSPs and local councillors.

Good governance and robust decision-making needs to be within the DNA of government, public sector and regulatory bodies.

We have worked with clients such as central and local government, regulators, universities and colleges and national transport authorities to embed strong and responsible governance cultures that help facilitate and protected the proper administration of functions rather than hinder them.

This includes drafting or revising Royal Charters, Orders of Council, Orders in Council, regulations, guidance and other governance instruments.

The firm's public sector lawyers are at the cutting edge of emerging developments and new thinking when it comes to alternative delivery models for public services, including:

• shared services
• structures for joint delivery of public services
• culture and leisure trusts, LLPs and other offshoots
• social enterprises, mutual and cooperative models
• public / private joint ventures
• innovation partnerships

We were the first to introduce the limited liability partnership (LLP) model in a local authority context. We also devised the legal framework for Glasgow Life - which set the benchmark for a host of subsequent projects. The team has since been involved in around 25 culture/leisure trusts – acting for the local authority or the offshoot trust at the set-up stage, in the context of the transfer of additional facilities/operations, taking services back in-house, and/or winding-up.

As regards public infrastructure, Burness Paull acted for the public sector participants on the first hub initiative project to reach contractual close - the South East Territory hub; and we continue to provide support to hubWest on ongoing projects.

Our public sector lawyers advised Scottish Futures Trust in relation to the corporate structure for the Non-Profit Distributing (NPD) model, and in reworking the model for revenue-funded hub projects, and we continue to track the proposals for the introduction of a version of the Welsh Mutual Investment Model (MIM) for future revenue-funded projects in Scotland.

In January 2023 the operative provisions of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 came into force, replacing the old state aid regime (and the limbo-state that separated the two for two years). Our lawyers have been immersed in working with clients throughout the whole process – including helping with the development of new subsidy schemes, advising on subsidy assessments and assisting with responses to challenges for clients such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise.

Our team has extensive experience of working with government, public sector entities and organisations, such as Scottish Futures Trust, the Net Zero Technology Centre and South Lanarkshire Council, as well as private companies in receipt of subsidies. We work with clients to develop tailored solutions to navigate through the complexities of the law and to help clients understand how to operate within the new subsidy control rules and regulations to meet their commercial objectives. We also work collaboratively with our clients to share our insights on how the regime is evolving as the new Act and Guidance is interpreted in practice.

The Subsidy Control Act applies to public support in any form, including:

• grants
• loans
• guarantees
• capital investments
• the grant of property rights (including options)
• reliefs
• waivers

Compliance with the Subsidy Control Act is not only essential for the public provider of the subsidy, but it is also critically important for the recipient – who may need to repay any subsidy not given in compliance with the subsidy principles.

Read our Subsidy Control Act 2022 guide here.