Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 136, 28^th October 2002

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Procedures considers when the use of languages other than English should be permissible in Parliamentary affairs.
• Equal Opportunities has a paper on equal pay.
• Audit examines the books of Local Economic Forums and SEPA.
• Education, Culture and Sport looks at the ownership of Scottish Media Group.
• Rural Development begins work on the Agricultural Holdings Bill.
• Justice 2 continues with the Land Reform Bill, moving to community buy-outs.
• Enterprise hears from Tourism Minister, Mike Watson.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR DELAYED DISCHARGE
NHS Board and local authority partnerships are to receive an additional £30m over the next three years from Scotland's budget to tackle delayed discharges - provided they meet existing local targets set by the Executive. This marks an increase of £10m a year on top of existing funding levels.

Announcing the additional funding, Deputy Health Minister Frank McAveety, said the Executive continued to see tackling delayed discharge as a long term, high priority and was determined to recognise and reward good practice and innovative approaches to addressing this problem. However, he wanted to see evidence of progress by each partnership before further funding was released.

NHS Board / LA partnerships received an additional £20m from the Health consequentials in 2002-3 for delayed discharge. They are required to use this funding to deliver specific targets set by the Executive.

The additional funding announced today from Scotland's Budget will be tied to new targets from April 2003 onwards. Where partnerships have failed to meet their April 2002 - April 2003 targets, high level support teams will be sent in to those areas and their share of this further funding will be held back until their plans are back on track.

Delayed discharge statistics are collected and published on a quarterly basis by the Information and Statistics Division (ISD) of the Common Services Agency of NHSScotland. The last census was conducted on 15^th July 2002, with the results published on 30^th September. The next set of census data will be published at the end of December.

Full Story

EXTRA FUNDING FOR CANCER SERVICES
An extra £1m over the next three years to improve cancer services has been announced following the publication of the first Cancer in Scotland annual report.

The money will support a new national redesign programme for lung, colorectal and gynaecological cancer.

Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm also announced an investment of £100,000 for pilot schemes to support new ways of working, including developing the role of therapeutic and diagnostic radiographers as part of service modernisation.

Scotland's cancer strategy, Cancer in Scotland: Action for change, was launched in July 2001 and is backed by an investment of £60m up until 2003-04, over and above existing national and local investment plans. Investment plans for 2001-02 and 2002-03 have seen £25m invested in wide ranging initiatives to build capacity, improve services and improve patients' care.

The first Annual Report of Cancer in Scotland sets out action to date, continuing improvements which are expected in the months and years to come, as well as highlighting remaining challenges.

This £1m in new money announced is over and above the £60m, and is part of the designed healthcare initiative which itself is part of the Centre for Change and Innovation currently being set up in the Executive.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY begins with Stage 1 of the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Bill - the Bill which provides for the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC).

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) introduces a new approach to European water management, namely one that integrates the traditional approaches of developing technology to reduce pollution at source with the setting of quality objectives for the receiving environment.

The policy memorandum describes the WFD as one of the most progressive pieces of environmental legislation to come out of the European Union in recent years and states that the WFD's transposition into Scots law would fulfil a pledge in the Programme for Government.

The Bill was introduced in the Parliament on 18^th June 2002.

The overall aim of the Bill is to promote the sustainable management and protection of the water environment in Scotland and to change the arrangements for funding new connections to the public water and sewerage infrastructure.

The Bill is divided into two parts. Part 1 on water environment encompasses two main policy objectives:

• To establish a statutory system for water management planning based on natural river basins and comprehensive environmental and economic assessment and monitoring (River Basin Management Planning), with SEPA assuming a lead role in the planning and implementation of the system; and
• To provide the framework for comprehensive controls over water abstraction, impoundment, engineering works affecting water courses and diffuse and point sources of pollution to water in order to achieve the best possible ecological status for all surface waters and to protect groundwaters from pollution and over abstraction.

Part 2 of the Bill on water services addresses the issue of responsibility for funding new infrastructure on the public networks and makes provisions to remove Scottish Water's existing obligation to contribute to the costs of laying mains and sewers incurred by those developing sites.

The Transport and the Environment Committee's Stage 1 Report on the Bill expresses concern about the lack of certainty surrounding its financial ramifications. The Committee agreed to recommend the agreement of the general principles to the Parliament, subject to a number of issues being addressed before MSPs vote on the Bill at Stage 1.

These include:

• That the Executive provides detailed financial information on estimates for anticipated costs of secondary legislation, including orders to identify areas for the abstraction of drinking water; and
• More precise information about the cost impact of proposed controls on the abstraction of water and the other costs of implementing the Bill which will impact on industries such as hydro-electric power.

The Committee also recommends:

• Strengthening the Bill's provisions on 'active participation'. The Committee believes that the best chance of achieving real stakeholder interest is with local people wanting to be involved in local initiatives that will address local problems. As such, the Committee has recommended that local advisory groups be established over the whole of Scotland.
• An anticipatory approach to flooding - adopting effective flood avoidance strategies rather than concentrating resources on dealing with the consequences of flooding events.
• Transferring planning powers in respect of aquaculture from the Crown Estate to local authorities. This was the clear and consistent view of the Committee, formed as a result of an extensive Inquiry into fish-farming. The Executive has so far resisted this position but the Committee strongly recommends that the Executive rethinks the matter.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Explanatory Notes
Click here to read the Policy Memorandum

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on the 50th Anniversary of the Nordic Council from the SNP's Kenny MacAskill.

THURSDAY is an opposition day and sees 2 debates from the SNP: one on Broadcasting and Media in Scotland and the other on Fishing.

While neither motion has yet been tabled, it is possible that the former will raise the announcement last month that Media company SMG has announced plans to sell its publishing business. The company owns three Glasgow-based titles - The Herald, the Sunday Herald and the Evening Times.

Calls for the Scottish Parliament to be given powers over broadcasting may also feature.

As regards the Fishing debate, this is likely to raise the recent recommendation by European Union scientists that fishing in the North Sea be significantly cut back - including a total ban on cod fishing.

The full text of both motions will be published in the Business Bulletin in due course and a transcript of the debate will be available from the Official Report from 08:00 on Friday.

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there will the Stage 1 debate the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Bill.

Introduced on 17^th June 2002 by Finance and Public Services Minister, Andy Kerr, the Bill proposes to abolish certain public bodies and appoint a new Scottish Public Appointments Commissioner. The Commissioner will produce a code of practice for ministerial appointments to public bodies and will have a role in ensuring ministerial compliance with the code of practice and in investigating complaints.

In its Stage 1 Report on the Bill, the Local Government Committee endorsed its general principles, but called for greater consultation of the Parliament throughout the process.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Explanatory Notes
Click here to read the Policy Memorandum

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Edinburgh Waverley Station from Labour's Sarah Boyack.

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