Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 110, 15^th April 2002

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE

The main items of business in the Committee Rooms this week are:

• Education begins stage 2 of the SQA Bill.
• Local Government takes evidence from Finance Minister, Andy Kerr, on the Budget Process 2003-04.
• Social Justice takes evidence on Community Engagement in the Social Inclusion Process and from both Social Justice Ministers on the 2003 - 04 Budget.
• Enterprise & Lifelong Learning takes evidence from Enterprise Minister, Wendy Alexander, on the Lifelong Learning Inquiry and on Individual Learning Accounts.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

EXECUTIVE IN CONCORDAT WITH STUC
First Minister Jack McConnell has today unveiled plans for better working relationships between the Scottish Executive and the trade unions.

At the STUC’s annual congress in Perth, Mr McConnell and STUC President David Bleiman signed a Memorandum of Understanding, committing both parties to work in partnership across a wide range of public policy issues.

Mr McConnell said:

"This document is based on a mutual understanding of the distinctive values and roles of each organisation and provides a framework for developing genuine partnerships, building on arrangements that already exist.

"This is the first formal agreement between the Executive and the unions and marks an important development in our relationship and clearly demonstrates the importance both sides place on working closely together."

STUC President, David Bleiman said:

"The memorandum of understanding is about how the STUC and the Scottish Executive work together, what we expect from each other and what we have to offer each other in the interests of better development and implementation of policy.

"It does not mean that we will always agree, but it will help build a sufficiently mature relationship to enable us to discuss our differences and resolve them where possible."

In October 2001, the Executive agreed to draw up a "concordat" in partnership with the STUC to formalise relations. Executive and STUC officials jointly drafted the document which has now been approved by Ministers and the STUC General Council.

Full Story

CHAMPION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The establishment of a Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland has taken a step forward.

Minister for Education and Young People, Cathy Jamieson, confirmed the Executive’s support in principle for a Children’s Commissioner, but said that much work was still needed to clarify the remit and powers of the post.

Ministers asked the Scottish Parliament's Education, Culture and Sport Committee to consider the case for the establishment of a Children’s Commissioner in January 2000. The Committee published the Report of its Inquiry on 14^th February 2002, and recommended that such a post be set up.

Responding to the Committee’s report, Ms Jamieson said:

"A Children’s Commissioner can help to provide a voice for many of those who often go unheard. It should make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable and deprived children in Scotland.

"There is still an unacceptable gap between those children who succeed and those who fall behind. Those who fall behind are often those whose background is already marked by exclusion and deprivation. We are committed to closing that gap.

"Much work still has to be done on the role, remit and powers of a Commissioner for Children and Young People. I understand that the Committee plans to produce a Second Report which will clarify these issues. We look forward to considering and commenting on those more detailed proposals in due course."

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

The main business on WEDNESDAY afternoon is an Executive debate on the Housing Improvement Taskforce.

The Housing Improvement Taskforce was established in March 2001 to undertake a comprehensive examination of the issues affecting the condition and quality of the 70% of all housing in Scotland which is in the private sector. The 16 members of the task force have been drawn from a range of organisations including the Council of Mortgage lenders, the Institute of Housing, the Scottish Consumer Council, local authorities, the private sector, surveyors, the legal profession and academia. Its remit included an examination of:

• The forms of financial assistance available for owners;
• The powers available to local authorities to compel private owners to maintain or improve their properties;
• The scope for providing better information on housing condition to house buyers;
• The arrangements for the management of flatted blocks in private ownership;
• The need for stronger regulation of the privately rented sector; and
• The impact of tenancy legislation in the privately rented sector.

The Task Force agreed to undertake its work in two parts – An examination of the problems and issues (stage one) and consideration of policy options for tackling these issues (stage two). It is the stage one report, "Issues in Improving Quality in Private Houses", which is now being published as a basis for wider consultation and which forms the basis for this debate.

Whilst the Executive is of the view that the primary responsibility for paying to maintain private sector houses rests with the owners, it is aware that developing new services and helping those in the worst conditions will need the commitment of public money.

Some of the main points emerging from the work undertaken to date by the Task Force are as follows:

• Although most private housing is in relatively good condition, some 26% suffers from critical disrepair - such as defects to the fabric of the building. Significant numbers of houses have problems such as lead in the water supply (9%) and poor energy efficiency (15%).
• The poorest conditions are to be found in older pre-1919 houses, particularly flats with common or shared repairing obligations and in the private rented sector generally.
• Current levels of expenditure by owners on repair and maintenance is likely to be inadequate to remove the backlog of repairs or prevent further deterioration, especially since the average age of the stock is increasing.
• Most owners have relatively little systematic information on the condition of their homes and tend to take a reactive approach to repair and maintenance. By and large, owners who do invest in regular repair maintenance are unlikely to find this reflected in the value of their properties.
• Many owners purchase homes in flatted blocks without understanding their obligations in respect of common repairs and maintenance. The effectiveness of the arrangements for undertaking communal repairs and maintenance is limited by factors such as the problems with the title deeds and inability of owners to agree and pay for the necessary works.
• The powers available to local authorities were designed primarily to deal with concentrations of below tolerable standard houses. They are not generally flexible enough to deal with the current situation. There is also a need to review the tolerable standard itself.
• The current arrangements for buying and selling houses do not encourage the provision of good quality information to buyers - most buyers opt solely for a mortgage valuation report before putting forward an offer and do not seek information on maintenance costs.

A full summary of key conclusions can be viewed here.

Click here to read the the Housing Improvement Taskforce Stage One Report in full

This is followed by a short debate on a Sewel Motion on the UK Enterprise Bill.

As with all Sewel Motions, this allows the Scottish Parliament to permit Westminster to legislate on what would otherwise be devolved matters, without the need to introduce a separate Bill.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate from Labour's Susan Deacon on the 10^th Anniversary of Children's Hospice Scotland.

THURSDAY morning is given over to an Executive debate on the Prisons Estates Review.

Currently a very live issue, the Estates Review was born out of a 1999 review of the prisons estate by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS). This review, entitled "Living within our means", resulted in the closure of Dungavel, Penninghame and Longriggend prisons and the merger of Friarton and Perth. However, it also identified the need for a more fundamental review, which has now been carried out and published.

The main points / proposals of the Prison Estates Review, on which the debate will focus, include:

• Substantial investment at Barlinnie Prison, which would be retained but at a reduced size. The present unrefurbished halls would be demolished. There would be investment in a new 360 place houseblock, which, together with the existing fully refurbished houseblock, would give a total capacity of around 530 places in the longer term.
• Low Moss Prison to close as soon as possible and the site considered for a new prison development.
• Peterhead, with substandard buildings and cells with no night sanitation or power for prisoners, to close and its work be transferred to prisons in central Scotland. However, because of the lead time of some three years for any building programme, closure would not occur before 2005.
• The role of Peterhead in delivering sex offender programmes would be retained in the public sector.
• At least 3,300 new prisoner places to be provided. Public sector investment in the refurbishment of existing accommodation or construction of new buildings could provide around 1,100 of those places within existing SPS establishments. So around 2,200 places would have to be provided by the construction of new prisons if likely demand is to be met. Public sector provision of the three prisons needed would cost around £700 million more than in partnership with the private sector.
• Three new prisons to be built and operated by the private sector under contract to SPS. (The need for the third prison will be reconsidered nearer the time that a final decision needs to be taken, in the light of prison population projections at that time.)

While the SPS is an agency answerable to Ministers for its performance, given the calls which will be made on the Executive’s budget, Ministers will take the final decisions on the Review.

Click here for more information

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there is an Executive debate on Social Care Workforce Development.

This debate is arises out of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 which set up two bodies:

• The Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care to regulate services; and
• The Scottish Social Services Council to regulate the workforce.

With a wide ranging remit, the Commission regulates care homes for adults and children, home care, day care, early education and childcare (including child minders), housing support services, nurse agencies and independent healthcare. It also establishes staff registers and publishes codes of conduct and practice for the social services workforce.

The second body, the Council, concentrates on those who work in the care professions. It will, for example, publish codes of practice for staff, establish registers for particular groups of staff and regulate the education and training of social workers.

A number of sets of standards for the various aspects of care covered by the Act have now been published and, while no motion has yet been tabled, it is likely that this is where the debate will centre.

Issues such as recruitment and retention, however, are also likely to be raised.

Rounding off the day is a Member's Business debate from Jamie McGrigor (CON) on Environmentally Designated Areas.

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