Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 139, 18^th November 2002

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Finance hears from Deputy Finance and Public Services Minister, Peter Peacock, on the Budget.
• Justice 1 has the Council of the Law Society Bill.
• Justice 2 continues with stage 2 of the Criminal Justice Bill.
• Public Petitions has a presentation on the use of certain drugs in the context of autism.
• Subordinate Legislation plays host to Tricia Marwick (SNP) as she discusses her local government PR bill.
• Local Government has a marathon agenda: stage 2 of the Local Government Bill, evidence from Peter Peacock on the Renewing Local Democracy consultation, and a long list of witnesses on the PR bill.
• Rural Development looks at the Agricultural Holdings Bill and that perennial favourite, the scallop industry.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

FUND TO ATTRACT NEW DIRECT AIR ROUTES
Scotland is to benefit from a special fund to cut landing charges and speed up the introduction of new direct air routes, it was announced today.

The new £6 million Route Development Fund will allow the country’s airports to attract a bigger share of Europe’s air travel boom by offering landing charge discounts to airlines opening up new routes to and from Scotland.

The funding to expand Scotland’s airports as a major tourist and business travel gateway is provided jointly by the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise. The scheme will target business and in-bound tourism routes which show the greatest gains for the Scottish economy.

The emphasis of the fund will be on European destinations serving in-bound tourism and business markets. Consideration will also be given to assisting domestic services on some less-used routes from smaller airports where greater frequency or quality can be introduced. There are no current plans to introduce transatlantic flights to the qualifying criteria.

Full Story 

THIRD SOCIAL JUSTICE ANNUAL REPORT PUBLISHED
The Executive’s third Social Justice annual report has been launched.

Social Justice Minister Margaret Curran said that, in line with the commitment to eradicate child poverty within a generation, £31 million was to be spent over the next three years on initiatives that help families find their way out of the poverty trap.

Details of how the money will be spent will be announced at a later date.

The 2002 social justice annual report reveals that:

• The proportion of children living in a household where no-one is in work has fallen from 19% in 1997 to 14%;
• The employment rate for lone parents is now at 56% which is an increase of 14% since 1997;
• The proportion of older people living in low income households has fallen from 28% in 1996/97 to 24% in relative terms and has halved in absolute terms; and
• Mortality rates from coronary heart disease for people aged 65 to 74 have fallen by 16% since 1999.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY sees Stage 1 of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill.

Essentially, the Bill seeks to establish a list, which will be maintained by Scottish Ministers, of people deemed unsuitable to work with children.

Introduced on 6^th September 2002, the Bill proposes that people on such a list will be banned from working with children and will commit an offence if they try to find employment in a childcare position. Organisations will commit an offence if they knowingly employ someone who is on the list.

People can be referred to this list, firstly, if they have been dismissed, transferred from or would have been dismissed from a position with access to children because they have harmed a child or put a child at risk of harm. Secondly, they can be referred to the list if they are convicted of an offence against a child. Scottish Ministers will decide, on the basis of written evidence, whether or not someone should be placed on the list.

The Education, Culture and Sport Committee endorsed the bill in its Stage 1 report, but did express some reservations over the way it would work in practice.

As it currently stands, the Bill only places a statutory duty on regulated organisations with access to children to refer an individual to the list if that person has harmed a child or put a child at risk of harm. However, the Committee has called on the Executive to place a statutory duty to take the appropriate action on all organisations which have access to children.

The report also calls on the Executive to review the process by which someone is put on the list to ensure that every individual has the right to a fair hearing.

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

The day closes with a Member's Business debate on the Mis-selling of Utilities from myself.

THURSDAY begins with Stage 1 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill.

This detailed, technical Bill seeks to provide greater clarity in the law and reduce the number of outdated conditions on land. Introduced to the Parliament on 6^th June 2002, it proposes to:

• Make further provision as respects real burdens, servitudes and certain other obligations affecting land; and
• Amend the law relating to the ranking of standard securities.

In practice, the Bill will extend the rights of enforcement of burdens to non-owners, including tenants and non-entitled owners. It will also introduce the power of the majority in a community to carry out certain acts, such as the appointment of a manager and the instruction of common maintenance.

In its Stage 1 report, the Justice 1 Committee endorsed the general principles of the Bill. However, it also called for a separate review of the operation of sheltered housing developments in Scotland. This follows the submission from 450 individuals on the matter, which is not directly addressed by the Bill.

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

This is followed by a short debate on a Sewel motion (where the Parliament agrees that Westminster can legislate on devolved matters) on the UK Extradition Bill.

While foreign policy is reserved to Westminster, a few matters in the Bill will impact upon devolved issues. Firstly, the Bill will extend the powers of Scottish Ministers so that they can make decisions about extradition applications from countries such as the USA. And secondly, it seeks to devolve decision making on extradition applications from EU countries to Sheriffs.

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there will be the Executive Debate on The Scottish Executive's Response to the Foot and Mouth Disease Inquiries.

This is the debate which was postponed from the 7^th November 2002 and, as outlined in e-Brief 137, is likely to focus on the Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiry and the Anderson Lessons Learned Inquiry.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh's Inquiry - the report of which was Published in July this year - was the only major inquiry focussing on the Scottish experience.

The inquiry recommended:

• That vaccination should be used to combat any further foot-and-mouth outbreak in order to avoid mass slaughter;
• That Scotland should have its own chief veterinary officer;
• That Scotland should also have its own laboratory capable of testing for the disease;
• Steps be taken to allow on-farm diagnosis; and
• That a team of vets should be trained to act as a "quick-response unit" in the event of a future outbreak.

The independent expert committee, chaired by Professor Ian Cunningham, was set up to investigate the control procedures employed in the epidemic and the impact that it has had on the Scottish economy and on tourism and identify lessons for the future. Professor Cunningham has said the outbreak had cost Scottish agriculture and tourism £481m.

The Anderson Lessons Learned Inquiry, also published in July, was commissioned by the Prime Minister in August 2001. It officially commenced in December 2001.

The key findings included:

• Contingency plans for the future in case of another outbreak are important;
• The military should be contacted at "the earliest appropriate, opportunity" to provide advice and support when an outbreak occurs;
• A comprehensive animal health strategy needs to be developed;
• Vaccination should form part of a future strategy for containing the disease and that should be vaccination to live rather than vaccination to kill;
• The livestock industry should promote good practice and tackle poor standards of farming; and
• Burning animals on mass pyres should not be used as a strategy in future for disposing of slaughtered cattle.

The Scottish Executive undertook to respond to both by the end of the year.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Affordable Rural Housing from the Lib Dems' John Farquhar Munro.

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