Neil Taylor
Biography
Neil Taylor was appointed Director of the Office of the Advocate General & Solicitor to the Advocate General in August 2017. The Director of OAG is responsible for overseeing all legal services provided by OAG to the UK government, and for overseeing delivery of OAG’s objectives.
In that time Neil has led the work of the Office and has, in particular, overseen some of the most important constitutional and devolution litigation of recent times in the Inner House and the Supreme Court: Miller 1 (article 50 trigger and the status of the Sewel Convention); the Wightman case (reference from the Court of Session to the CJEU which sought declarator that the Article 50 notice could be unilaterally withdrawn); Cherry 1 and Miller 2 (Prorogation); the ‘Benn Act’ cases (which sought declarator that the Prime Minister would comply with statutory obligations to avoid a ‘non-deal Brexit’) and the Keating case (which sought declarator that the Scottish Parliament could legislate for a referendum on independence).
In addition, there have been three references to the Supreme Court by the UK Government Law Officers of three Scottish Parliament Bills (‘UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) Bill, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill; European Charter of Local Self-Government (incorporation) (Scotland) Bill), and the UK Government’s response to the Lord Advocate’s recent reference to the Supreme Court on a draft bill on a referendum for Scottish Independence.
OAG were also involved in certain aspects of the s35 Order made by the Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack to prevent the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill progressing to Royal Assent and the subsequent judicial review of that decision.
Neil has recently been appointed (September 2025) as a Legal Member of the Upper Tribunal for Scotland. He will undertake this part time role (e.g. 24 days a year) in addition to his full time job as Director of OAG. Neil will not receive a fee for work connected to the Upper Tribunal.
Education
Neil has an MA(Hons) in English and Philosophy from the University of Glasgow and an LLB(Dist) from the University of Edinburgh. He was admitted as a solicitor and notary public in 1996.
Career
Neil joined the civil service in 1995 and prior to devolution advised a number of Scottish Office departments as well as undertaking Home Office judicial review work in Scotland. Post-devolution highlights include:
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Legal adviser to a variety of departments and agencies within the Scottish Administration with work including litigation, advisory and instruction of primary legislation;
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From 2002 to 2013 - member of the Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel (OSPC). OSPC (now PCO) is the legal office responsible for drafting all Bills that the Scottish Government introduces in the Scottish Parliament. During part of that time he was also involved in drafting some Scottish aspects of Westminster Bills;
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2010 - seconded to Historic Scotland for nine months during the Parliamentary passage of the Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2011. Also served as interim Chief Operating Officer for a short period during the secondment. Neil was a non-executive member of the Historic Scotland Advisory Committee from 2011 to 2015.
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Head of Advisory & Legislation Division in OAG from March 2013 until August 2016 with work including issues around the referendum on Scottish Independence, the subsequent Smith Commission and leading the team in OAG to deliver the bill which became the Scotland Act 2016.
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Legal Secretary to the Advocate General from August 2016 to August 2017. During that time working on constitutional issues arising from Exiting the European Union including the devolution implications of the Government’s arguments in the ‘Article 50’ Miller case before the Supreme Court.
Director and Solicitor to the Advocate General
The Director of OAG is responsible for overseeing all legal services provided by OAG to the UK government, and for overseeing delivery of OAG’s objectives as set out in its Business Plan.