Proposals to reduce and more fairly distribute public subsidies to Scotland's court services were published for consultation today.

The Scottish Court Service (SCS) is today launching a consultation on proposals to increase civil court and Public Guardian fees in order to reduce substantially the amount of public subsidy for these services, and to try to distribute the subsidy more fairly between the Court of Session, Sheriff Courts and Office of the Public Guardian.

Currently, on average, the level of public subsidy of the court service is 47 per cent. This level of subsidy is greatest in the Court of Session where two-thirds of the cost falls to the public purse. The Scottish Court Service proposes, by increasing fees, to reduce the average subsidy to a target of 22 per cent by 2011. If the proposals in the consultation are accepted, SCS income through fees would increase by £6m.

Responses are sought on the proposals for the distribution of subsidy, on future inflation increases and on the fairness of the system of fee exemptions.

SCS chief executive Eleanor Emberson said: “Raising fees is never going to be universally welcomed, but we have a responsibility to tackle the very low fee recovery rate in Scotland - at 53 per cent it is the lowest in the UK.

“Taxpayers are subsidising the running of our civil courts and Office of the Public Guardian by £13m a year, and this is money which could be better used elsewhere - for instance, for police or healthcare.

“In order to maintain levels of funding for other vital public services, the SCS budget has been set at a level which assumes we will increase our fee income. We do have choices about how far we subsidise different parts of the business and what criteria we use for fee exemptions, but it is not a realistic option for us to maintain the current fee levels.

“During this consultation we do want to hear views and suggestions from people with an interest, so we can review our proposals before Fees Orders are presented to the Parliament's Justice Committee.”

The fees levied range from document-copying charges to fees for Inner House Hearings at the Court of Session. The current fee for an Inner House Hearing at the Court of Appeal, the highest court of civil appeal involving three of the most senior judges, is £148 per hour, with the costs split between both parties involved. It is proposed to increase this fee to £400.

Emberson adds: “Our proposals involve larger percentage increases for fees in the Court of Session, which has had a disproportionately high level of subsidy to date - around two-thirds of the costs are not covered by the fees charged.

“Consequently this would mean a lower fee increase for services provided by the Public Guardian, including registering Powers of Attorney and Guardianships.”

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