The Court of Session has made the Act of Sederunt (Fees of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers) (Amendment) 2026, a short corrective instrument made on 3 September 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 4 September 2026 and due to come into force on 25 September 2026. According to the explanatory note in the Scottish Statutory Instruments text, the purpose is narrow. The instrument amends the earlier 2026 fees rules to correct drafting errors. It does not introduce a fresh fees regime, and the published text gives no sign of any change to the underlying policy or the level of fees.
The amendment was made under sections 103, 104, 105 and 106 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and was signed in Edinburgh by the Lord President, Paul Cullen, on 3 September 2026. The instrument also directs that a certified copy be inserted in the Books of Sederunt, preserving the formal record of the rule change. The timing is important. The Court of Session has moved before the main fees instrument takes effect, which reduces the chance that officers of court, solicitors and litigants begin using wording that has already been identified as defective.
Several of the changes are small on their face but aimed at legal precision. In the interpretation provision, the definition of "first class recorded delivery post" is adjusted so that the first occurrence of the word "post" becomes "service". Paragraph 7 also loses the opening words "Subject to this Chapter," and paragraph 9(1) replaces "a sheriff officer" with "an officer of court". Read together, those changes look like a drafting clean-up rather than a substantive rewrite. The text is being aligned so that defined terms, opening wording and references to office-holders sit more consistently across the instrument.
The most detailed correction sits in paragraph 15, which deals with charging by time. There, "messengers-at-arms" is changed to the singular "a messenger-at-arms", and wording is removed that had made the provision inapplicable unless paragraphs 16 to 18 applied. A new sub-paragraph 15(5) is then inserted to state that sub-paragraphs (3) and (4) are subject to paragraphs 16 to 19. That matters because cross-references determine how charging rules interact. By expressly extending the qualification through to paragraph 19, covering realising of money attachment, the amended text is clearer about when time-based charging must give way to other provisions in the chapter.
A further correction is made to paragraph 21(1) on value added tax. The earlier wording from "supplies" to "sub-paragraph (2)" is replaced with the phrase "makes a taxable supply to any other person". In practical terms, that appears to bring the VAT provision into plainer and more recognisable tax language. The amendment does not alter VAT law itself, but it should make the fee rule easier to apply when officers of court are deciding whether VAT falls to be added to a charge.
The immediate group affected is limited but operationally important: messengers-at-arms, sheriff officers, solicitors instructing diligence and parties who may recover or meet those costs in the Court of Session, Sheriff Appeal Court and sheriff court. For those users, the key date is 25 September 2026, when the corrected wording takes legal effect. As a matter of legislative drafting, the amendment is modest. As a matter of court administration, it is useful. Fee instruments depend on exact wording, and even minor errors in definitions, cross-references or tax language can create avoidable disputes over what may properly be charged.