Committee News

Issue 1, 20^th June 2000

Procedures

A heavy agenda this week includes the following issues:

• Private bills: at present, they can only be ‘deposited’ (for the Presiding Officer to certify) on two days in the year. This is being reconsidered, taking account of available resources.
• Donald Gorrie is moving a paper which proposes, amongst other things: no motions, just a free-for-all debate on a subject; six minutes for every speech; and an audit of the number of times that each backbencher has not been called in debate. His main point is that MSPs should be allowed to speak more often, and for longer.
• A Presiding Officer’s question time will commence.
• There is continued pressure from the SNP to extend the use Gaelic and Scots, for example to parliamentary questions. At the moment translations are not checked, and the committee will look at the resource implications.
• Parliamentary Questions – an audit has been completed. The average number submitted by an MSP in each month is similar to that for Westminster at around 70 but the numbers are increasing. There are wide variations with some members submitting only one or two while nationalists head the pack – Fergus Ewing averages 330 questions a month so far.

Justice & Home Affairs

Last week, the committee took evidence on vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. Glasgow Women’s Aid were clear that they are not looking for procedural changes such as the use of video screens (the Law Society of Scotland’s suggestion) but for at total restriction on the rights of a person accused of a sexual offence to cross-examine, as is now the case in England & Wales.

Bail & Judicial Appointments Bill. One implication of this bill is to remove the ability of councillors who are JPs to perform court duties. The Committee is not convinced that the Executive has made the case that the ECHR requires this. A petition this week from the District Courts Association suggests dealing with the problem by transferring fines from local authorities to the Exchequer.

Meanwhile, the Sheriffs Association are not convinced that the new part-time sheriffs will meet the ECHR any more than the old temporary ones. The issue is the continued difference in the procedure for removing part-time sheriffs from office – the Committee has asked the Exec need to look at this again.

On bail, the Committee did not support the view that criteria should be given for assessing whether to grant bail.

This week the committee begins stage 2 consideration of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill.

Health & Community Care

The Committee heard evidence on community care from COSLA and the NHS Confederation, both supportive of the Executive’s approach. Malcolm Chisholm has been asked to report on the issues in a petition on warm homes.

This week community care evidence will come from Northern Ireland, where unitary health & social services trusts exist.

European

The draft report on European Funding is ready for consideration in private. However, Bruce Crawford continues to argue that evidence must be taken from Treasury and Scotland Office civil servants prior to a conclusion, even though he has not come up with any questions that he wishes to ask.

This week will see private discussion of the European Water Framework Directive. This places controls on the abstraction of water: a vital issue in some countries, but some asks question as to how relevant it is to Scotland given our climate.

Standards

The committee has decided on a Standards Commissioner – this gives the issue of standards a high status, and the person will be very clearly independent.

Education, Culture & Sport

This week, the committee continues its inquiry into Special Educational Needs by hearing evidence from the Equity Group and Minority Ethnic Learning Disabilities Initiative. During the Stage 3 debate on the Standards in Scotland’s Schools bill, the Equity group expressed some reservations over the ‘requirement to mainstream education’ amendment, concerned that the ‘opt-outs’ for local authorities would be used too liberally. During the Stage 3 debate, Parliament agreed Mary Mulligan’s amendment of ‘unreasonable’ public expenditure, which strengthened the requirement for mainstream education.

Last week the committee agreed the Executive’s proposed motion on Care Standards Bill. They also considered The Children (Protection at Work) (Scotland) Regulations 2000 and agreed that it need not be drawn to the attention of the Parliament, although they would seek further information on various issues. The committee agreed to invite Sam Galbraith in September to discuss the McCrone report.

Local Government

At last week’s meeting, the committee agreed the terms of reference for the appointment of an advisor for their inquiry into local government finance. This week they will consider The Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2000 which delivers two of the recommendations from the ‘It Pays to Pay’ report to:

• start the instalment scheme a month earlier to give a full 12 months for billing and recovery;
• combine the reminder and final notice to allow recovery procedures to begin at an earlier stage.

They will also continue to take evidence on stage 1 of the Transport bill.

Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector

The committee will be considering their forward work programme into drug abuse and deprived communities and a further draft report on their inquiry into housing stock transfer, both in private. The committee has still to finalise what input they will make to stage 1 of the Transport bill, which they will consider again next week in private.

Equal Opportunities

The committee will take evidence on a report on responses to the consultation paper Towards an Equality Strategy from the Scottish Executive Equality Unit. The key principles in the development of the strategy are:

• ensuring that equality issues are at the heart of Scottish Executive policy making;
• working in partnership and promoting dialogue with all areas of society;
• for the Scottish Executive to be a leader in equal opportunities best practice and to address the under representation of women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities in the senior civil service;
• widening representation in public appointments; and
• reporting regularly to the Parliament on the development of the Equality Strategy and progress on implementation.

The consultation paper can be read by clicking on: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/doc10/taes-00.asp

The committee will also take evidence on the work of Positive Action in Housing and ethnic minority housing issues from Robina Qureshi, Director of PaiH, and will consider the equal opportunities implications of the Transport (Scotland) Bill.

Transport & Environment

The Committee had been tabled to consider the issue of genetically modified organisms last week – but this consideration was deferred to a future meeting. They also decided to consider this issue on private.

The Committee will begin its Stage 1 consideration of the Transport (Scotland) Bill with evidence being taken this week from the Minister for Transport and the Environment, business organisations, freight organisations, local government and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive.

Finance Committee

Last week, the Finance Committee had a marathon meeting taking evidence from Jack McConnell on a number of issue including EU Structural Funds and Stage 1 report of the Budget.

This week the committee will consider the Draft Written Agreement on Budgeting Process and the draft 2001/02 Budget Stage 1 report. It is likely that this important Report will be finalised shortly with the Committee’s Chamber debate before the recess.

Rural Affairs

The Stage 2 consideration of the National Parks (Scotland) Bill was concluded on Monday.

The Executive made a considerable number of amendments – all of which were passed.

Two amendments of significance were passed without Executive agreement. The first, and the most controversial was an amendment from Mike Rumbles to have direct elections to the Boards of National Parks.

The second, was an amendment concerning planning regulations that would mean the National Park Plan would be a ‘material consideration’ – this basically means that National Park Plans are given greater weight in planning decisions.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning

At last weeks meeting, the committee took evidence on the economic difficulties being faced in the Highlands and Islands. The closure of Bar Mac and the demise of the Oil Fabrication industry in particular were the focus of discussion. The committee noted developments.

The committee also took evidence on Stage 1 of the Transport (Scotland) Bill with the issue of congestion charging and workplace parking charging remaining high on the agenda of business organisations and the trade unions.

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