The Scottish Parliament has passed amendments to the Legal Services (Scotland) Bill which will see a regulation body set up to control non-lawyer will writers.

Holyrood intends the move to provide consumers with the same protection from rogue will writers as they would get from using a solicitor.

Jamie Millar, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “We welcome the opportunity to work with the Justice Committee and the government to further discussions on the compensation fund arrangements. It’s an important and complicated issue and the society is committed to help find a solution which will meet the needs of traditional law firms and new licensed providers and also protect consumers.”

The society was one of various groups to lobby the Scottish Parliament for regulation following a series of incidents which left clients unable to seek compensation for what it referred to as "inaccurate, inadequate or overly expensive advice".

Holyrood heard communities safety minister Fergus Ewing describe the case of a non-lawyer will writer who had driven an elderly client to the bank to pay a £1,000 cash fee for a will, estimated to be up to ten times the usual price.

Speaking at the Justice Committee on Tuesday, SNP MSP for Inverness East, Mr Ewing, said: “As for our dealings with the UK government, we are very happy to discuss this matter with it and, indeed, would like our friends and colleagues south of the border to follow happily the lead that we are giving in the UK on this issue.

“It would certainly be useful to have some exchange in this respect, because – to be quite candid and frank about this – I am sure that consumers south of the border are being ripped off by cowboys charging a fortune for a service that might well be defective.