Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote

For other persons of the same name, see Richard Scott.

Richard Rashleigh Folliott Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote, PC, (born 2 October 1934), is a British barrister and judge.

The son of Lieutenant-Colonel C. W. F. and Katharine Scott, he was educated at Michaelhouse School, Natal in South Africa,and at the University of Cape Town, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A (Law Tripos) in 1957 and a Blue in rugby. He then spent a year at the University of Chicago where he met his future wife. Scott was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1959, becoming a Bencher in 1981. From 1960 to 1983, he practised at the Chancery Bar, and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1975.

In 1980, Scott was appointed Attorney General of the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster, a post he held until 1983. He was further the Duchy's Vice-Chancellor from 1987 until 1991 and Chairman of the Bar in the years 1982 and 1983. Scott was appointed a judge of the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division in 1983, he became Lord Justice of Appeal in 1991 and Vice-Chancellor of the Chancery Division in 1994. From 1995 until 2000, Scott was also Head of Civil Justice, having led the Scott Inquiry into defence-related exports to Iraq and related prosecutions from 1992 until 1996. In 2003 he was appointed a non-permanent member of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal.

He was knighted in 1983, and became a Privy Councillor in 1991. On 17 July 2000, he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and created a life peer as Baron Scott of Foscote, of Foscote in the County of Buckinghamshire

Lord Scott of Foscote has been married to Rima Elisa Ripoll since 1959; they have two sons and two daughters.