The Scottish Court Service has put proposals to Parliament that increase court fees by almost half in the Court of Session, against the views of those who responded to an earlier consultation.

"This will mean an average fee increase of around 49 per cent for the Court of Session, where fees currently cover only one-third of actual costs. The average increases proposed for Sheriff Courts is 31 per cent and for the Office of the Public Guardian, 8 per cent,” Chief Executive Eleanor Emberson said.

Civil court business is presently financed from general taxation, with a proportion clawed back from admin fees charged to court users, usually borne as an outlay by litigants.

The SCS said that if the measures contained in the proposals are accepted by Parliament, up to 80 per cent of Sheriff Court business and around 60 per cent for the Court of Session will be paid for by clawbacks in this way by 2011.

An earlier consultation document set out the principle of full-cost pricing - the recovery of the full operating cost- apart from fee exemptions. The SCS said that the majority of respondents challenged this principle and argued that full cost pricing was not appropriate for court or Public Guardian business.

“SCS has not accepted that the principle of full-cost pricing is inappropriate or that there is a strong case for maintaining cost recovery at no more than its current level.” SCS said in a statement

In 2006/07, the taxpayer subsidised 47 per cent of the total cost of civil business in Scotland).