Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 120, 24^th June 2002

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE
The likely highlights in the Committee Rooms this week include:

• Education, Culture and Sport continues with its Purposes of Education Inquiry, hearing from religious groups.
• Local Government takes evidence on the Local Government in Scotland Bill from Deputy Finance and Public Services Minister, Peter Peacock.
• Procedures considers points raised by the Convenor’s Liaison Group on evidence in formal committee meetings.
• Equal Opportunities takes evidence for its Inquiry into Gender Equality and Best Value.
• Justice 1 considers a petition opposing the closure of Peterhead prison and, in private, the Prison Estates Review Report.
• Audit takes evidence on the Auditor General’s "Overview of Further Education Colleges" from Angus, Clydebank and Inverness colleges.
• Standards discusses a draft proposal for a Committee Bill on replacing the Member’s Interest Order.
• Justice 2 is beginning Stage 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill, starting with access issues.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

INCREASE IN DRUG SEIZURES AND ARRESTS
Figures in the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency’s (SDEA) latest report show a 68% increase in the number of drug seizures and a 35% increase in arrests.

Speaking as he opened the brand new SDEA headquarters in Paisley, First Minister Jack McConnell welcomed the report. He said:

"These new headquarters will provide excellent facilities for 134 police officers who are in the forefront of the fight against drugs. We will increase that number to 200.

"Drug dealers do not respect police force boundaries and that’s why it is vital that we have a Scotland-wide approach to ensure there is nowhere for dealers to hide.

"Drugs and other serious organised crime are quite simply a threat to Scotland and to Scottish society. We take that threat very seriously. That is why we set up the SDEA and we continue strongly to back it, and our police forces, in spear-heading the drive to protect our communities."

The headquarters will also house the new Scottish Money Laundering Unit which will use state-of-the-art technology to help seize dealers’ assets and invest them in tackling drug problems back in communities. The unit’s work will be underpinned by the tough new powers in the Proceeds of Crime Bill, coming into force next year.

The SDEA was formally launched on 1^st June 2000. Currently 134 police officers are based in the new SDEA HQ, along with 32 civilian staff, and 100 officers work in the 8 police forces. The Scottish Executive announced an additional £6 million last year and, with the new accommodation now available, this should allow the SDEA to recruit towards its target of 200 officers based in the HQ.

Full Story

ALLOCATION OF DELAYED DISCHARGE FUNDING
Details of the allocation of £15 million to help local care services tackle delays in discharging vulnerable patients from hospital have been announced. Argyll & Clyde will receive £1.734 million.

This is the second tranche of investment from the £20 million of additional money being provided by the Executive specifically for local authority and NHS Board partnerships to reduce the number of people whose discharge from hospital is delayed.

While £5 million of this money was released immediately to stimulate early action, the Executive required local authority and NHS Board partnerships to submit robust local action plans prior to the release of the remaining funding.

Local plans are now in place to ensure an additional 1,000 people this year across Scotland are transferred from acute hospital beds into more appropriate care. Measures which will be taken include:

• Developing more community care services and support;
• Utilising existing care homes places where appropriate;
• Increasing the rate of assessments by social work staff; and
• Developing stronger liaison between social work and NHS emergency services for older people to head off avoidable hospital admissions.

Deputy Health Minister, Frank McAveety, warned that he would hold local NHS / local authority partnerships to account for delivering their share of this target figure and promised swift intervention if national monitoring identified any area of the country falling behind on its local plan.

Allocations will be distributed to the partnerships via NHS Boards.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY begins with Stages 2 and 3 of the University of St. Andrews (Postgraduate Medical Degrees) Bill. As occasionally happens when considering legislation, the Stage 2 will be taken by a Committee of the whole Parliament. Stage 3 will then proceeded as normal.

As was said before the Stage 1 debate, this short (a mere 2 clauses) and simple Bill will amend the Universities (Scotland) Act 1966 to allow the University of St Andrews to grant postgraduate medical degrees.

There is likely to be only one amendment at Stage 2. This will correct a slight error in the Bill as proposed. As it stands, the Bill will allow all people registered by the Medical Act 1983 to sit the St Andrews MD course, but would unwittingly exclude persons with certain recognised overseas qualifications.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced

This is followed by an Executive Debate on Action on Waiting and Delayed Discharge.

While the motion has not yet been published, it is likely that the debate will focus on the announcement last week of the allocation of £15 million to help local care services tackle delays in discharging patients. For more details, see the news section above.

There is then a short debate on a Sewel motion on the UK Police Reform Bill.

Essentially, this will allow the Parliament to agree that the above Westminster Bill can contain provisions to ensure that sex offenders orders made in one jurisdiction within the United Kingdom can be recognised and enforceable throughout the UK.

The day ends with a debate on Loan Sharks from Trish Godman (LAB).

THURSDAY begins with Stage 3 of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Bill.

A Committee Bill put forward by the Standards Committee last year, it seeks to establish a Standards Commissioner with independent powers to investigate complaints against MSPs’ conduct.

As well as defining the remit of a powerful new watchdog, the Bill also sets out details of a fully transparent appointment process and arrangements which will ensure that the Commissioner has security of tenure to protect his or her independence.

This Bill is an important one which will enable a new Standards Commissioner to investigate complaints against MSPs thoroughly and in an impartial manner.

Unlike the Standards Commissioner at Westminster, the Commissioner in the Scottish Parliament will have statutory powers to summon witnesses and compile evidence. This is seen as essential in guaranteeing the independence and authority of the post. Overall this is probably a more robust package than that at Westminster.

The Key Elements of the Bill are as follows:

• The Commissioner will carry out investigations independently of the Standards Committee. He / she will have statutory powers to summon witnesses and compel the production of evidence.
• The Commissioner may be appointed for an initial period of not more than five years with the possibility of reappointment for a further five years.
• The Commissioner may only be removed from office with the agreement of at least two-thirds of the Parliament.
• The Bill sets out a clear procedure for the submission of complaints against MSPs.

Click here to read the Bill as amended at Stage 2

This is followed by a Finance Committee Debate on its report on Stage 1 of the 2003 / 04 Budget Process.

The report praises the post-devolution budget process and welcomes the efforts of both the Scottish Executive and the Parliament to work together to deliver proper democratic scrutiny.

Publishing the report, Committee Convenor, Des McNulty (LAB) said that this year's Annual Expenditure Report (AER) published by the Scottish Executive contains a number of presentational improvements following recommendations made by the Committee.

The AER also sets out the spending plans in a strategic context in terms of the Executive's priorities and principles for public investment and makes greater use of targets, greater use of disaggregated information and seeks to link policy development to expenditure. The report also includes tables covering the Private Finance Initiative and relevant sources of funding and it sets out both functional and cross-cutting objectives.

The Convenor continued:

"The Finance Committee welcomes the improvements that the Executive has made. This view is supported by our colleagues across the Parliament's subject committees, who expressed a general belief that the quality of the AER is much improved, and that their understanding of it was enhanced by departmental budget briefings. Our Committee appreciates the efforts of Ministers and officials in the Executive in these matters.

"That said, the Executive has not been able to produce the agreed information distinguishing baseline expenditure from new spending proposals, with a summary of outputs, or the data on capital commitments and this is disappointing. However, we are advised that this should be possible after the 2002 Spending Review, which is being considered on a priority-based approach.

"Overall, significant improvements have been made to the Parliament's budget scrutiny process this year due to better co-ordination between the Finance Committee and each of the subject committees and, in turn, this offers a sound basis for the proper scrutiny of financial decisions by the Executive."

Click here to read the report in full

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there is an Executive Debate on Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap.

At the time of writing, the motion has not yet been published and so the precise focus of the debate is not known. However, the full text of the motion will appear in the Business Bulletin shortly. As always, the full transcript of the debate will be available online from 08:00 on Friday.

Business comes to close with a Member's Debate on Peebles Sheriff Court from Christine Grahame (SNP).

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