As with our article on the practical differences when writing a Will in England and Scotland, there are also a number of important differences to be aware of when signing and witnessing a Scottish Will.

In Scotland, there is a requirement to sign the bottom of each page of the Will. This is different to England and Wales, where only the last page of the Will must be signed.

With a Scottish Will, if there are any pages that are not signed, this will render the Will invalid, so this is a crucial part of the signing process.

In Scotland, another main difference is that there only needs to be one witness to a Will. The witness must also sign on each page. In England and Wales, they only need to sign on the last page, but there needs to be two witnesses.

(With the same requirement as with an English Will that the witness should not be anyone mentioned in the Will otherwise the gift to them will then fail).

There is no hard and fast rule to say that a family member should not be a witness to a Will, however it is considered best practice that a witness to any legal document be someone entirely independent. Ideal witnesses could be neighbours or work colleagues.

A very important point to note as above is that is a beneficiary must never sign the Will as a witness and neither should a close relative, such as a spouse of a beneficiary. Making this mistake would mean that they would lose their inheritance (section 15 Wills Act 1837).

Witnesses to a Scottish Will must be over the age of 16.

In England and Wales, witnesses must be aged 18 or over.

In England and Wales, there is no requirement to provide the place where the Will is signed. But this should be included in Scottish Wills (our Will for Good signing clause does include address details).