Committee News
Issue 78, 17th September 2002
Audit Committee
The Committee will meet this week to discuss Audit
Scotland’s work programme from now through to March, and
will consider a possible Inquiry into the Review of the
Management of Waiting Lists in Scotland. The Committee will
consider a draft report on the Overview of Further Education
Colleges in Scotland.
Education, Culture & Sport Committee
The Committee took evidence on the Public Appointments
and Public Bodies Bill last week. The Committee heard
evidence from Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister, Elaine Murray,
and from various heritage agencies, including Historic Scotland.
Professor Michael Lynch of the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland criticised the proposals for abolition of the organisation, saying it would affect the independence of the advice given to Ministers and that at the very least the structure of a new body giving such advice should be determined before abolition goes ahead. He described the consultation process as flawed.
Chair of the Historic Buildings Council (HBC), Cllr Pat Chalmers, expressed similar dismay that it is to be abolished. He argued this would reduce the accountability of the current spending of HBC, and that Historic Scotland, which holds the budget, had not informed them properly of what was in their budget. As a result, he said, there could be a potential underspend of £7.25m.
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland is "reprieved" to become the national survey of archaeology and buildings of Scotland, and Roger Mercer of the Commission said they were relatively satisfied with the proposals, although rather sad not to be remaining a Royal Commission.
Convenor Karen Gillon (LAB) asked Graham Chalmers, Director of Historic Scotland, why they had ignored the 91% of correspondents who had argued for the retention of the HBC. He said there had been an exercise on which Ministers were advised. He disagreed with those previously giving evidence about the accountability of Historic Scotland, and said the underspend would in fact be no more than £1 million.
Elaine Murray said the two bodies were to be abolished, in spite of the consultation showing a preference to retain them, as although the consultation showed the organisations were popular, it did not show they fulfilled the four criteria against which Non-departmental Public Bodies were being judged. She said their roles would now be taken on by Historic Scotland, whose decisions can be queried through Parliament. There was disquiet on the Committee on the accountability of Historic Scotland and its making these decisions without the advice of the existing bodies.
This week’s meeting includes deliberation on a draft summary of evidence received and a report of commissioned research on Purposes of Education.
Enterprise & Lifelong Learning
Committee
Last week’s meeting considered the Lifelong
Learning Final Report in private. The Committee agreed to
undertake technical editing and to arrange a suitable launch.
Publication will not now take place in the week commencing 16th
September.
Next week’s meeting will take further evidence on the Tourism Inquiry from CoSLA, Historic Scotland, The Scottish Tourist Forum, and the Federation of Small Businesses. The Scottish Tourist Forum’s submission says there is considerable support for the report on tourism by Stevens and Associates, which the Committee commissioned, and says working with the private sector to encourage partnerships and marketing funding is vital to the strategy.
Ofgem will give evidence on Electricity Trading and Transmissions Arrangements, as they are consulting on opening up the wholesale energy market in Scotland to more competition.
Equal Opportunities Committee
Last week the Committee discussed a paper resulting from its Inquiry
into Gender Equality and Best Value. Elaine Smith (LAB) said
compulsory competitive tendering should be mentioned as a key
theme and raised the problem of lack of women in local government
as well as the issue of equal pay audits. It was agreed to
highlight these points in the report. A draft report will be
discussed in October.
The Committee’s work programme was discussed and the potential for research into an equal pay audit throughout Scotland. It was decided to wait until the research into gender strategies in the public sector had been received. It was also agreed to meet with the Chokhar family to inform its deliberations on the outcomes of the inquiries into the Chokhar case. Items in the work programme include gathering evidence and producing a motion on mainstreaming, consideration of a Single Equality Body, and travellers one year on.
European Committee
An extensive meeting last week included evidence from Justice
Minister, Jim Wallace, but no Official Report is yet available.
The minute of the meeting notes that the Inquiry into
structural funds will continue, but that on decommissioning
of fishing boats will end as no evidence of corruption has been
found.
Finance Committee
Last week the Committee majored on the financial implications
of the Water Environment & Services Bill. There
is no disagreement that the Water Framework Directive is a good
thing, but Scottish Water, supported by SEPA and SNH, expressed
concern at uncertainty regarding the additional costs which will
come their way, and the difficulties of quantifying the benefits
that will result - the bills will be real, but how do you put a
value on biodiversity? Executive officials acknowledged that
costs are unknown as this is largely enabling legislation for new
systems which are yet to be devised. The Committee did not find
this reassuring.
The Committee’s report on PPPs was considered in private, and will be continued this week.
Health & Community Care Committee
At last week’s meeting, the Committee considered a
progress report on petitions as well as a report from the
Committee reporter on GM crops, Nicola Sturgeon (SNP). Ms
Sturgeon's report concluded there had been a lack of monitoring
of the health of people around trial sites, and this was the
reason for a lack of data on the health implications of GM crops.
The Committee agreed to hold an Inquiry on the issue and agreed a
timetable. In private, it agreed its report on the Public
Appointments and Public Bodies Bill.
This week’s meeting will take evidence on NHS Boards’ Consultation Processes from Health Minister, Malcolm Chisholm; Fife NHS Board; Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust; Greater Glasgow Health Board; and from petitioners. A range of submissions criticise the consultation processes of health boards. The Committee will receive a briefing on the Mental Health Bill.
Justice 1 Committee
The Title Conditions Bill continued last week
with an evidence session on the technical detail of deeds and feu
discharges. On the issue of owner-occupied sheltered housing, Age
Concern was pleased that there will be a right for such owners to
change the manager of a scheme if desired.
A joint meeting of the two justice Committees this week will hear general updates from Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, and the outgoing Chief Inspector of Prisons, Clive Fairweather.
Justice 2 Committee
Two meetings last week. At both, discussion of the Criminal
Justice Bill report continued. (See yesterday's e-Brief
for more details on the report.)
At the second, stage 2 of the Land Reform Bill was picked up again. Progress is painfully slow and the Committee is still discussing part 1 on access. No major issues arose last time.
More of the same this week.
Local Government Committee
Stage 1 of the Public Appointments & Public Bodies
Bill continues to be consensual. Issues include
mainstreaming equality, and the appropriate role of ministers in
the process. Private consideration of the stage 1 report on the Local
Government in Scotland Bill (Best Value, wider
competence, etc) also continued last week. Both of these continue
in private this week, along with preparations for Tricia
Marwick’s PR bill.
However, the main evidence this week is on the next phase of the Executive consultation Renewing Local Democracy from CoSLA, whose written submission in the Committee papers is a useful summary of their current position. They argue that the Local Government in Scotland Bill does not go far enough in securing the position and prestige of local authorities; call for better remuneration and conditions of service for councillors; and put forward the view of a majority of councils, that there should be no change to the first-past-the-post voting system in local government elections.
Public Petitions Committee
Amongst the new petitions in a marathon meeting last week
were one from Lib Dem MSP Iain Smith asking that the
Executive’s decision no longer to treat Fife as a stand
alone planning area be overturned. The Committee agreed to
take this up. A village action group raised concerns that bids
for school PPPs are not flexible enough to allow small
village schools to continue.
There was a long discussion about the designation of Sites of Special Scientific Interest, in this case in Uist. Rural communities are often opposed to these conservation designations, and in the case of these petitions strong words have been said. The Committee therefore spent time getting a number of facts straight on the record. SNH argued that it only considers science when designating, and further point out that the UK is well below the EU average for site designation.
Rural Development Committee
In private, the Committee considered a draft report on its Inquiry
into integrated rural development.
It then took evidence on Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, firstly from John Farnell, the European Commission’s Director of Conservation Policy, Fisheries Directorate-General. He said the Commission has concluded that present fisheries policy does not work. He said there were 5 key areas under the Commission’s proposals for reform. Firstly, it proposes a new approach to fisheries management based on sustainable exploitation; secondly a new approach to managing the fishing fleet, concentrating public funds on making it more attractive to take fishing capacity out of the fleet rather than adding to it; thirdly limiting fishing access to local vessels and those with historical rights; better endorsement of the rules; and finally changes in governance to enable more participation in the management process, though regional advisory councils.
Fishermen’s representatives, including Alex Smith, President of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, also gave evidence. Concerns were raised over the size of the proposed regional councils. Although one person giving evidence wanted to leave the CFP altogether, most of the contributors saw merit in some of the Commission’s proposals. There were, however, concerns especially with regard to the speed of implementation. Scottish Environment LINK welcomed the proposals for sustainability and encouraging reduced fishing capacity.
The meeting this week will take evidence on CFP reform from Rural Development Minister, Ross Finnie.
Social Justice Committee
The meeting this week will discuss the Committee’s approach
to Stage 1 of the Homelessness (Scotland) Bill and
will consider a draft report on the Social Inclusion Inquiry.
Standards Committee
At last week’s meeting, the Committee considered
correspondence from Margaret Jamieson (LAB) on the Business
Exchange and agreed to invite the Convener of the Exchange,
the Parliament's Chief Executive, Paul Grice, to a meeting to
explore further its operation.
On the issue of the alleged unauthorised disclosure of a draft Committee report, the Committee considered correspondence from Christine Grahame (SNP) and agreed that the Convener should write to her to ask the Justice 1 Committee to carry out an initial investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure. Their report would allow the Committee to determine whether the Standards Adviser should be asked to investigate further.
The Committee also agreed that the Convener should write to all MSPs to inform them of the reasons for proposed changes to the Code of Conduct on disclosure of complaints to the media.
Subordinate Legislation Committee
Last week the Committee questioned a provision in the Public
Appointments & Public Bodies Bill requiring the
proposed Scottish Commissioner for Public Appointments to
‘consult the Parliament’. Members wonder what this
means, which is of note because the existing UK Commissioner made
a similar point in her evidence to the Local Government
Committee.
Transport & the Environment
Committee
Last week evidence on the Water Environment &
Services Bill continued, with contributions from
conservation bodies and angling interests. The conservationists
have a common front, calling for more focus on flood prevention
and integration with other policies; they also believe that the
consultation processes envisaged are inadequate. On the ongoing
issue of who should pay, they are clear that it should be the
polluter. They also disagreed with the whisky industry on
derogation from the abstraction provisions for Scotland because
of our high rainfall. They argued that the whole point of the
Water Framework is a level playing field across the EU.
The anglers are very supportive of the Bill, and were relaxed about the dual policy / regulation role of SEPA which has exercised other witnesses.
Lots more on the Water Environment & Services Bill this week, with evidence from public sector bodies.
In the written submissions:
Deputy Environment Minister, Allan Wilson’s, latest response to the Committee on aquaculture is also in the papers.
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