The Society's newly formed Access to Justice Committee has concluded its inaugural meeting with a call to the Scottish Parliament to make a "radical" Access to Justice (Scotland) Bill a priority in the next session of the Scottish Parliament.

In a statement the committee said its first meeting had agreed to produce, as a matter of urgency, a detailed framework for a comprehensive and far-reaching Access to Justice (Scotland) Bill, "which could immediately address a number of major deficiencies in accessing Scotland's systems of civil and criminal justice."

"Access to civil or criminal justice in Scotland is a constitutional and human right," said committee convener Mike Dailly.

"We believe that Scotland's legal system is a public service which delivers that right in the same way that schools deliver education, or the NHS delivers a health service. Accordingly, we believe that citizens in Scotland are entitled to access the appropriate legal advice, assistance, and representation, whenever their liberty, life, wellbeing, children, home, work, environment, and community are significantly threatened. We hold these principles to be self-evident.

"We would urge all MSPs and all Scottish political parties to embrace the need for a radical Access to Justice (Scotland) Bill in the next Parliamentary session, and to have regard to our analysis of the emerging risks to access to justice in Scotland in light of UK and Scottish Government welfare benefit and public sector cuts".

The Committee said it would also look at the implications of the forthcoming government spending cuts and the imminent decision of the UK Supreme Court in the case of Cadder v. Her Majesty's Advocate.