Scottish Parliament Committee News
Audit Committee
A quick meeting last week saw the Committee
consider the arrangements for its inquiry into the report by the Auditor
General for
Communities Committee
The Committee continued its
evidence taking on the Charities
and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Bill. Last week’s evidence came
from two panels, the first comprising members of the legal profession including
Simon Mackintosh of the Charity Law Association; Stephen Phillips of the Law
Society of Scotland; and Dr Patrick Ford, a lecturer in Law at the University
of Dundee. The second panel consisted of
representatives from the Charity community including, among others, Martin Sime, Chief Executive of SCVO; and Norrie
Murray, Head of Policy and Strategy Unit Volunteer Development Scotland. Whilst the evidence given by both panels was
uncontroversial, it was noted that they did take opposing views. The legal
panel expressed concern over the independence of the Office of the Scottish
Charity Regulator (OSCR) and what might be seen as the overregulation of
English Charities operating in Scotland, a view the charity panel did not share.
The Committee also considered the Building Standards Advisory Committee (
Education Committee
Evidence on the Gaelic
Language (Scotland) Bill continued.
Evidence this week came
from the Bord na
Gaidhlig, who are (unsurprisingly) in favour of the
Bill. It praised the goodwill shown by
the Executive in the process of drafting and amending the legislation and noted
its satisfaction with the overall framework of the Bill. On the specific issue of the status of Gaelic,
the Bord noted the symbolic importance this has with
the Gaelic community, but warned against terminology such as “official
language” or “equal status”, citing this as inappropriate and
confusing. Instead, the Bord would rather use the term “equal validity”.
The Bord
is also hopeful that the Bill as presently constituted creates a workable way
of addressing the various issues which currently confront Gaelic medium education
and the teaching of Gaelic as a subject.
Members also discussed their
forward work programme. The Committee
will be looking at the issues of pupil motivation, early years and school
transport policy in the New Year.
Enterprise & Culture Committee
A busy meeting took evidence
on the Transport
(Scotland) Bill; the consideration of response from the Deputy Minister
for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning in response to the Committee’s
scrutiny of the Scottish Executive’s 2005/06
budget proposals; the consideration of an updated work programme for 2005; the review of the progress to date on its scrutiny of the Area Tourist Board review;
and the consideration of a revised Stage 1 draft report on the Further
and Higher Education (Scotland) Bill, which will be published next
week.
On Transport, the main areas of concern from the groups giving
evidence was the issue of the power given to local authorities in the Bill to
make utility companies resurface an entire road when they dig up only part of
it as part of their work. There was also
a concern raised in relation to the penalties which can be imposed due to
congestion resulting arising from roadworks.
On the budget, the Committee sought
clarification from Scottish Enterprise on elements of its spending.
Environment and Rural Development Committee
The Committee
concluded its stage 2 consideration of the Water
Services etc. (Scotland) Bill, with Labour members successful in
securing action to tackle the smells from sewerage works. The Committee also asked the Deputy Minister Environment
Minister, Lewis Macdonald, some details questions to clarify the investment
programme, enforcement issues and how the statutory code on odour nuisance
would be progressed.
Equal Opportunities Committee
The Committee continued
taking evidence on the Prevention
of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Bill, hearing from
representatives of the Somali Women Action Group, the Muslim Women’s
Resource Centre and the Foundation for Women’s Health, Research and
Development.
Finance
Committee
The Finance Committee took evidence for its Cross Cutting Expenditure Review on Economic Development from Minister
for Finance and Public Service Reform, Tom McCabe; Minister for
Particular concerns were
raised about the “deliverability” of some aspects of the transport
capital programme such as the Edinburgh and Glasgow airport links and
Scottish Executive
officials also provided evidence for the Committee’s inquiry into the
Financial Memorandum for the Transport
(Scotland) Bill.
The Committee then finalised
its consideration of its Report on Stage 2 of the 2005-06 Budget Process. The Parliament will debate the report on 23rd
December. The Committee welcomed the Executive’s implementation of
several previous recommendations including cutting the number of process-based
targets, streamlining the budget process and increasing spending on areas which
support economic growth, such as lifelong learning and transport. Nonetheless,
some areas for improvement were identified - the key recommendations of the
report include:
·
There
is a need for some form of strategic target related to economic growth, using
comparative growth and growth indicators as benchmarks for improvement;
·
The
Executive should have been clearer in the presentation of its efficiency
savings; and
·
The
Executive should examine the impact of low increases in grant support year by
year for local government, especially towards the end of the Spending Review
period.
Health
Committee
Most of the
agenda items were held in private, with the Committee discussing possible
witnesses for its eating disorder
inquiry. The Committee also
considered a draft of its workforce
planning inquiry report, as well as looking at a number of petitions and some
subordinate legislation.
Justice 1 Committee
The Committee
continued its evidence taking for the inquiry
into the effectiveness of rehabilitation programmes in prisons. The Committee
looked at the first draft of its first report and went on to take evidence from
Hugh Henry, Deputy Minister for Justice, as well as a number of representatives
from criminal justice services around
Justice 2 Committee
The Committee
took evidence from Colin Boyd, the Lord Advocate, on the
The Committee went on to
discuss its paper on Youth Justice, hearing
from members of the Committee who had visited various projects around
Local
Government and Transport Committee
A marathon session saw the Committee question a number of witness panels with
regard to Stage 1 of the Transport
(Scotland) Bill and question Deputy Minister for Finance and Public
Services, Tavish Scott, on the UK Government’s Gambling Bill. The Gambling Bill received the majority of the
media coverage, with the Committee voting by five votes to three to recommend
that a Sewel motion be used. The vote saw the SNP reject more powers over
gambling be devolved to
The main item on
the agenda was the Committee’s draft report on replacing the Members’ Interests Order, which the Committee
signed off. This is expected to come
before Parliament in the New Year and will see a requirement to declare
non-peculiarly interests. As well as
this, it will require MSPs to declare property owned
by their spouse and will remove the requirement to declare gifts to
partners. These changes will come in to
force following the 2007 election.
Subordinate Legislation Committee
The Committee continued its deliberations on the Further
and Higher Education (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1. The first item was the
report back from the Executive which the Committee had expected to receive at
its previous meeting. On the matter of fundable further and higher education,
the Committee felt that the powers were wide and should be subject to
affirmative procedure. The Executive agreed.
The Committee then handed
its findings directly to the lead Committee for its meeting. There were no other controversial matters
raised at the Committee, which included issues from the Race Relations Act to protection
of children.
Other Committee
Homepages:
European
and External Relations Committee
Procedures Committee
Public
Petitions Committee
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