Committee News
Issue 55, 15th January 2002
Audit Committee
Last week’s meeting heard from the Auditor General on the
state of the NHS in Scotland. He stressed that the overall
position is good, but noted a slight deterioration in the sums by
which trusts are failing to break even. The number who failed to
break even, eight, is the same as last year. The
"underspend" in the health budget is £168m out of
£5bn, but as last year it was stressed that this may be money
already committed or awaiting invoices –
‘underspend’ is slightly misleading.
Education, Culture & Sport Committee
Last week, in his evidence
to the Committee on the Scottish Borders Inquiry, Deputy
Education Minister, Nicol Stephen, emphasised that there is no
immediate role for ministers in the council's financial
difficulties beyond the specific issue of virement within the
Excellence Fund. The overspend is a matter for Borders Council to
resolve along with the Accounts Commission.
Questions were raised over the Excellence Fund, with guarantees being sought on how the money was being spent by Borders, over the impact on children with special educational needs and the forthcoming HMIE investigation.
Other items included evidence on the Land Reform Bill from sport organisations and a brief discussion of the Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry (Devolution and Broadcasting) to which the Education Committee will give evidence in February.
This week returns to the Scottish Ballet Inquiry with evidence from Scottish Arts Council and Culture Minister Mike Watson.
Enterprise & Lifelong Learning
Committee
Last week, the Committee met in private to discuss its interim
report for the lifelong learning inquiry. This week,
members receive a report back on the progress and achievements to
date from private sector representatives on the Local Economic
Forum Taskforce, namely Federation of Small Businesses
Scotland, CBI Scotland and Scottish Chambers of Commerce. They
also hear from Scottish Enterprise on its international strategy.
Equal Opportunities Committee
Fair for All, the Scottish Executive report on access to, and
use of, the NHS by people from ethnic minority backgrounds, was
discussed last week. It was agreed to write to the Health
Minister requesting clarity over how the indicators are measured
and by whom.
In private, the Committee considered the general principles of Alex Neil’s (SNP) Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Bill to prepare a report for the lead Local Government Committee.
European Committee
This week’s meeting will
consider an increase in the amount of scrutiny the Committee
gives to the implementation of EU legislation. The Committee
is also likely to intervene again on the proposal to liberalise
postal services, as this is returning to the European Parliament.
There are concerns that rural services could be impaired.
Finance Committee
Finance meets this week to consider a paper on the Budget
(Scotland) Bill and a paper on possible case
studies for the PPP/PFI inquiry.
Health & Community Care Committee
This week the Committee continues stage 2 of the Health
& Community Care Bill.
Justice 1 Committee
Last week’s meeting was a private discussion of a stage
1 report on the Freedom of Information Bill.
Justice 2 Committee
Last week continued discussion of the Land Reform Bill,
with evidence on both sides of the debate including the Scottish
Landowners Federation (see Rural Development report below).
This week the Committee meets in Inverness, to continue with the bill. Overall, the access lobby is delighted with the changes made by the Executive to the draft bill, and discussion with them is on largely minor issues: for example, access to golf courses.
A few points to note include:
Local Government Committee
Last week the Committee concluded taking evidence for its Local
Government Finance Inquiry with evidence from Argyll and Bute
Council. The report is expected in the Spring and will address
such issues as hypothecation, Council Tax and the balance between
central and local funding of local government spending.
This week the Committee takes evidence from both Alex Neil (SNP) and Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services, Peter Peacock, on Mr Neil’s Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Bill. Having already received a mixed response at the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Bill can expect detailed scrutiny from the Committee.
Procedures Committee
This week’s evidence in
the seemingly never-ending CSG inquiry is from the
churches and the Civic Forum; the latter is very positive in its
written submission about the work of the Parliament so far.
Also, the clerks are proposing to re-examine the future procedure for selecting a nominee for the position of First Minister.
Public Petitions
This week, new petitions on
releasing or transferring patients from Carstairs State Hospital,
the development of the Mental Health Act and sheep farming
on Loch Katrineside all feature. Petitions being returned to
include responses from the Executive on ME, foot and mouth pyre
ash and prison officers’ pensions.
Rural Development Committee
Last week’s meeting was a long evidence session for the Land
Reform Bill. It was concerned with an issue that is
exciting passions, the inclusion of freshwater fishing rights
within crofting right-to-buy. Commercial interests – those
who own the rights to fish for trout and salmon and charge others
to do so – do not want crofters to gain these rights if they
buy their land.
Land Reform continues this week, including evidence from landowning interests and the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust. The landowning bodies remain very concerned at the fact that crofters will be able to buy their land at any time. Both sides are anxious about the definition and size of community bodies required to exercise right-to-buy. The Scottish Landowners Federation are unhappy with the changes made to the draft bill on access (see Justice 2 report above), and go so far as to argue that because of the common law right of access Part 1 of the bill is unnecessary.
Social Justice Committee
Last week the Committee began consideration of draft guidance
and orders for the implementation of the Scottish Secure
Tenancy and Right to Buy. Members agreed to contact
organisations responding to the Executive consultation to ensure
that their own discussions focus on the areas of key concern.
They also agreed to revisit stages 1 and 2 of the Housing Act
to look for issues and to examine how those match the draft
guidance.
Standards Committee
This week Standards returns to
the issue of the disclosure of complaints in the media, (a
discussion inspired by a complaint against Lloyd Quinnan (SNP)
which exposed a lack of clarity in the Code of Conduct) with a
discussion paper outlining options for amending the Code.
Subordinate Legislation
Two points of minor interest
last week. First, there is a discussion ongoing as to whether local
government pensions are reserved or devolved (probably
devolved). Second, the Committee noted again a tendency to use terms
that they regard as English in regulations in preference to
Scottish alternatives.
Transport & the Environment
Committee
Stage 2 of the Water Industry Bill continued
last week. There were several amendments on membership of the
boards, including one from John Scott (CON) which stipulated that
non-executive members would have a majority. It was withdrawn
following assurances from Deputy Minister for Environment and
Rural Development, Allan Wilson, that Executive amendments would
be lodged at Stage 3 to meet the concerns.
The Committee also took evidence from Allan Wilson as part of the Aquaculture inquiry. The Minister was unable to give much detail of the Executive’s timetable for investigation of the issue, but did confirm that the officials in the freshwater fisheries unit have applied jointly to the Crown Estate Commissioner for research funding. This would enable an exercise to be conducted in the year ahead to inform how the work on assessing carrying capacity might be developed and announcements are expected throughout the next year.
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Articles ] [ Calendar ] [ Contacts ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ UK Online ] [ Scottish Parliament ]