Scottish Parliament Committee News
Issue
159, 24th May
2005
Audit
Committee
The Committee dealt with section 22 reports on Lews Castle
College, West Lothian College and Inverness College. These
institutions are spending over their budgets and the particular problem
highlighted in the West Lothian case was the tying of the PPP contract with the
numbers of students.
I
t is hoped that this problem
will be resolved with the merging of the funding councils.
The Committee also heard from representatives of the health
department, clinicians and managers on bowel cancer services. It emerged
from the discussion that managed clinical networks are disseminating good
practice and that this is ensuring training is kept up to date. It was also
noted that there is greater awareness of bowel cancer due to early prevention
campaigns and that this has led to more referrals. At the moment, a referral
protocol is being agreed and there are plans to increase training capacity for
nurse endoscopists ahead of the new national screening programme.
Communities
Committee
Last week's meeting took evidence on the
Housing
(Scotland) Bill
. Energy Action Scotland expressed some concern over the apparent
lack of commitment to deal with energy efficiency issues in the private sector.
They did not believe that the Executive had set appropriate targets and more
work was needed to address this situation. The Mobile Home Owners pressure group
felt that aspects of the Bill were good for those who choose to live in a mobile
home for short periods of the year. However, they argued that those in
permanent mobile homes who wanted to get onto the regular housing market had
more serious difficulties which were not adequately addressed by the Bill in its
current form. Shelter said that the mobile home sector needed better management
and regulations and this was not addressed in the current Bill.
Education
Committee
Continuing with its pupil motivation inquiry, the
Committee heard from teachers and teachers' unions with the former giving a very
positive view of work which can be undertaken to motivate pupils.
Environment
and Rural Development Committee
The most notable part of last week's Committee proceedings was
the appearance before of the Ministers for Communities and the Environment, both
of whom were giving evidence on the
Environmental
Assessment (Scotland) Bill
.
Finance
Committee
Academics and a representative from the Cabinet Office Delivery
Unit gave evidence on the civil service reform aspect of efficient government.
Richard Parry, from the University of Edinburgh, focused on public expenditure,
civil service management and the extent to which the Executive is responding to
and constrained by Whitehall in its reform. Robert Pyper, from Glasgow
Caledonian University, focused his evidence on broader civil service reform
rather than efficiency. The Committee also appointed its convenor, Des McNulty
(LAB), as its reporter into transport spending. He will look at how decisions on
funding transport projects are made and how to ensure parliamentary scrutiny is
made more effective.
Health
Committee
As part of its
Stage 2 consideration of the Smoking,
Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill, t
he Committee heard evidence on an Executive amendment on the frequency
of Care Commission inspections, designed to allow the Commission to target
resources towards where inspections are needed most. After hearing
extensive evidence, the Committee raised a number concerns and the amendment
will be looked at further when it comes back before the Committee on 31st May.
Justice
1 Committee
The Committee
took Stage 1 evidence on the
Family
Law (Scotland) Bill from no less than
3 panels of witnesses. Panel 1 were from Children in
Scotland and Children 1st; panel 2 were representatives of Families Need Fathers
and Grandparents Apart; and panel 3 were from Scottish Women's Aid. The
Committee will be looking at the principles of the Bill first. However,
the panels giving evidence felt that issues surrounding family mediation needed
to be addressed. This is a substantial Bill and sorting out the myriad of
complicated issues it raises will be tricky.
Justice
2 Committee
The Committee met in private to discuss its report on Youth
Justice.
Local
Government and Transport Committee
Deputy Finance and Public Services Minister, Tavish Scott, was
cross-examined on the
Licensing
(Scotland) Bill. The
session looked at the wide range of issues which had been raised
in the course of the evidence so far. Amongst these were: irresponsible
promotions and particularly concern over on-sale promotions; the right to object
and if there should be a geographical limit; and if a change in the hours of
pubs will lead to a drift towards later hours, exacerbating antisocial behaviour.
Conservative members questioned the Minister over the need for a
"grandfather" clause, arguing that all those with a licence now should
be entitled to a licence under the new system. There was also mention of
the Scottish Whisky Association’s call to make the refilling of spirit bottles
illegal, as it is in England & Wales. Test-purchasing, overprovision, and
alcohol in football grounds were also raised.
Subordinate
Legislation Committee
Members discussed delegated powers in the
Housing
(Scotland) Bill
. This is a wide and varied Bill - running to 169 sections,
spread over 8 parts. Given its size and complexity, the Committee unsurprisingly
had a number of issues which it wished to raise with the Executive and they have
therefore asked for clarification on a number of sections.
The Committee also discussed the
Licensing
(Scotland) Bill
. Another substantial Bill - it runs to 140 sections - it
contains 41 enabling powers, which will be used to make Orders and Regulations
dealing with a large number of technical, procedural and administrative matters
which are not suitable for inclusion on the face of the Bill. The Bill
constitutes a major reworking of the licensing regime in Scotland and much of
the Executive's new policy will be delivered by Subordinate Legislation.
Other Committee
Homepages:
Enterprise
& Culture Committee
European
and External Relations Committee
Equal
Opportunities Committee
Procedures
Committee
Public
Petitions Committee
Standards
Committee
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