Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
(1) This section applies to a defamatory statement made or published by a person (A) about another person (B) .A has published the statement to a person other than B, andthe publication of the statement has caused (or is likely to cause) serious harm to the reputation of B.(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) (b) , where B is a non-natural person which has as its primary purpose trading for profit, harm to B's reputation is not “serious harm” unless it has caused (or is likely to cause) B serious financial loss.a statement about a person is defamatory if it causes harm to the person's reputation (that is, if it tends to lower the person's reputation in the estimation of ordinary persons) ,a reference to publishing a statement is a reference to communicating the statement by any means to a person in a manner that the person can access and understand, anda statement is published when the recipient has seen or heard it.(5) Nothing in this section affects a right to bring proceedings which accrued before the commencement of this section.(1) A public authority may not bring defamation proceedings.any institution of central government, including in particular the Scottish Ministers and any non-natural person owned or controlled by them,any institution of local government, including in particular each local authority and any non-natural person that such an authority owns or controls,a court or tribunal,any person or office not falling within paragraphs (a) to (c) whose functions include functions of a public nature (unless excluded by regulations made under subsection (6) ) .has as its primary purpose trading for profit, oris a charity or has purposes consisting only of one or more charitable purposes, andis not owned or controlled by a public authority,holds (directly or indirectly) the majority of shares or voting rights in it,has the right (directly or indirectly) to appoint or remove a majority of the board of directors of it, orhas the right to exercise, or actually exercises, significant influence or control over it.(5) For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this section prevents an individual from bringing defamation proceedings in a personal capacity (as distinct from the individual acting in the capacity of an office-holder or employee) .(6) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations make provision specifying persons or descriptions of persons who are or are not to be treated as a public authority for the purpose of subsection (1) .(7) Regulations under subsection (6) are subject to the affirmative procedure.(8) Before laying a draft of a Scottish statutory instrument containing regulations under subsection (6) before the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Ministers must consult such persons as they consider appropriate.registered in the Scottish Charity Register, ormanaged or controlled wholly or mainly outwith Scotland and which is registered in a register equivalent to the Scottish Charity Register for the purposes of the country in which it operates,“charitable purposes” is to be construed in accordance with section 7(2) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act
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