Attempt to rescue SNP’s costly, ailing solicitors regulator as Bill Brackenridge appointed new £300+ a day Chair of Scottish Legal Complaints Commission

New Chair appointed to SNP’s ailing legal regulator. THE Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has today announced the appointment of Bill Brackenridge as it’s chair, somewhat tardily replacing the redoubtable Jane Irvine who left her post on 31 December 2012. Mr Brackenridge, who has held a number of Non Executive Directorships & Chairs of bodies such as NHS Highland & Argyll & Bute CHP, and was appointed by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to the Vale of Leven Monitoring Group, takes over the £300 plus per day position at a time when the notoriously wasteful SLCC is facing mounting criticism from the legal profession for its huge annual budget at nearly £3million pounds, paid for by a compulsory levy on solicitors across Scotland.

The SLCC announced the appointment in a Press Release SLCC Appoints new Chair stating : We are pleased to announce the appointment of Bill Brackenridge as Chair of the SLCC. The appointment will be for five years.  He replaces Jane Irvine, the first Chair of the SLCC, who served from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2012.

The SLCC is the single gateway for complaints against legal practitioners operating in Scotland. It investigates and resolves complaints about inadequate professional service; refers conduct complaints to the relevant professional body and provides oversight of complaint handling across the profession. The SLCC also promotes and advises on good complaint handling and makes recommendations to promote good legal practice in Scotland.

Bill Brackenridge brings considerable Corporate Governance experience to the SLCC. As a management consultant for 25 years he has extensively advised public and private sector clients.  He has served as a non-Executive Director on Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd and on NHS Highland, chairing the Argyll & Bute CHP for five years.  For six years he chaired the Board of the Scottish Ambulance Service.  He comes to the SLCC aiming to build on its formative years and intent upon developing positive relationships with its stakeholders.

Bill commented "I'm pleased to be joining the SLCC at such an important time in its development. We're now established as the gateway for all legal complaints in Scotland but there's much more for us to do to build trust and confidence in legal services. I'm looking forward to working with the team to make us even more effective and influential in dealing with complaints and in encouraging improved standards through our powers of guidance and oversight. The legal market is changing. Our hard-won experience will contribute to maintaining and strengthening public trust and confidence in buying and using legal services."

The SLCC is the single gateway for complaints against legal practitioners operating in Scotland. It investigates and resolves complaints about inadequate professional service; refers conduct complaints to the relevant professional body and provides oversight of complaint handling across the profession. The SLCC also promotes and advises on good complaint handling and makes recommendations to promote good legal practice in Scotland.

Appointed for Scotland.org contains a fuller history of Mr Brackenridge : Meet current board members - Bill Brackenridge

" There are lots of people who can put something back. "

Having started his career in British European Airways, Bill joined Strathclyde Region's Policy Planning Unit, before going on to spend more than 20 years in a Management Consultancy with a focus on corporate governance. Drawing on several strands of his experience, he joined Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd as a non-executive director in 1999. In his six years there - a period which he describes as "remarkably interesting" - he helped the organisation evolve from one that simply operated airports to one that used its ten airports to develop the economy of the area.

When he left full time consultancy in 2003, he joined the Scottish Ambulance Service as Chairman of the board. There was a need to make the Scottish Ambulance Service a recognised and integral part of the health service and not just a transport adjunct to it . "In my time as Chair I improved the links between the two. Paramedics are well-qualified health professionals making a vastly different contribution from the ambulance drivers of old."

In 2006 Bill successfully applied to be a member of the board of NHS Highland - Bill's local Health Board. A "cross-directorship" like this allows Bill to help ensure the NHS is a truly national and integrated service, not a collection of separate organisations. He was appointed Chairman of NHS Highland's Argyll & Bute Community Health Partnership, charged with overseeing the delivery of primary health care to the 100,000 people of Argyll & Bute and purchasing most of their secondary care from neighbouring Health Boards.

Recently he was appointed by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing to chair The Vale Monitoring Group -  a group which will report to her on whether or not the Vision which she has approved for the Vale of Leven Hospital is being implemented fully and to an appropriate timetable. 

"The public appointments system has changed vastly over the years. It is now a competency based framework. Many will find this very different from ordinary application processes, but it is not difficult. It focuses on what you have done and not what you have been. There are lots of people out there who can put something back and make a contribution. These roles are not just for middle class white Scottish men. Board members don't have to be drawn from the sector or to have come from big jobs. If you have the right personal qualities, and you keep asking the difficult questions until you get an answer that you're happy with, you will be making a contribution to the work of the body. Public appointments are fascinating and rewarding. The key issue is to have the confidence to ask questions -  and to keep asking more questions till you get answers you believe ". (Gasp ! – Ed)