Published on legislation.gov.uk, the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) (Amendment) 2026 was made by the Court of Session on 3 September 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 4 September 2026 and is due to come into force on 25 September 2026. The explanatory note states that the purpose is to correct drafting errors in the earlier Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) 2026. On its face, this is a targeted corrective measure rather than a wider rewrite of the fees structure used in enforcement and related court work.
According to the instrument, the Court of Session is acting under sections 103(1), 104(1), 105(1) and 106(1) of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Those powers sit within the framework for procedural rule-making across the Court of Session, the Sheriff Appeal Court and the sheriff courts. That legal basis matters because fee rules are part of the operational machinery of the courts. Even where a change is narrow, unclear drafting can create avoidable questions about how charges are calculated, when surcharges apply and how officers of court present accounts for payment or taxation.
One of the first changes appears in the interpretation provision. The definition of “first class recorded delivery post” is amended so that the first occurrence of “post” is replaced with “service”, a small but deliberate correction to the language used around document service. The instrument also removes the words “Subject to this Chapter,” from paragraph 7 on the calculation of fees. Read in context, that deletion looks designed to remove wording that was either unnecessary or capable of causing confusion when the provision was read alongside the rest of the chapter.
A further amendment alters paragraph 9(1) on surcharges by replacing “a sheriff officer” with “an officer of court”. That is a modest textual change, but it broadens the wording so that the provision is framed by reference to the relevant office-holder category rather than a single role. For solicitors and officers preparing accounts, that type of amendment is not merely cosmetic. Surcharge provisions can become points of challenge where parties dispute whether a fee has been properly applied, and clearer terminology gives less room for disagreement over the reach of the rule.
Paragraph 15, which deals with charging by time, is also recast. The amendment changes “messengers-at-arms” to “a messenger-at-arms”, removes wording that previously disapplied the rule where paragraphs 16 to 18 were engaged, and inserts a new sub-paragraph stating that sub-paragraphs (3) and (4) are subject to paragraphs 16 to 19. That redrafting improves the internal structure of the provision. Instead of embedding a partial exception within one sentence, the rule now states more directly that the charging provisions are qualified by the later paragraphs on ferry use, enquiries and the realising of money attachment.
The instrument also revises paragraph 21(1) on value added tax. The text published on legislation.gov.uk replaces the previous wording with the phrase “makes a taxable supply to any other person”. That matters because VAT wording needs to sit cleanly with wider tax concepts. For firms processing enforcement costs, and for officers of court issuing accounts, the revised phrasing should make the provision easier to read and less likely to prompt unnecessary uncertainty about when VAT applies to a recoverable charge.
Taken as a whole, the amendment does not set out a new fee table and does not read as a change to the underlying tariff. Its function is to tighten drafting in the 2026 fees instrument before the regime settles into routine use across the Scottish courts. For court users, the practical effect may appear limited at first sight. For messengers-at-arms, sheriff officers, solicitors and court administration teams, the value is greater legal certainty in the day-to-day handling of service, enforcement, surcharge claims, time charging and VAT. In procedural terms, that is precisely why corrective instruments of this kind matter.