Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 147, 27^th January 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Health continues with the Mental Health Bill.
• Justice 1 meets in Inverness to take evidence on its Inquiry into alternatives to custody.
• Public Petitions considers petitions on issues including abolishing Scottish Enterprise and the fishing industry.
• Rural Development considers the Agricultural Holdings Bill at Stage 2.
• Standards continues to consider the Cross Party Group Review and issues relating to the Business Exchange.
• Local Government considers the Dog Fouling Bill at Stage 2.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

HAMILTON TO HOST FIRST YOUTH COURT
The country's first youth court will be set up in Hamilton this Spring, Ministers announced today.

The model will have three distinctive features:

• A fast track process to deal with the young offenders;
• A group of designated sheriffs for the youth court; and
• Disposals specially designed for the young offender age group.

The decision to pilot the scheme comes on the back of the Executive's 10-point action plan for youth crime announced in June 2002. The pilot will target persistent young offenders in the 16-17 year-old age groups with the flexibility to deal with 15-year-olds in certain circumstances.

The fast-track process will ensure young offenders are brought to court quickly. The proposal is that - other than in exceptional cases - prospective youth court offenders should make their first appearance in court within ten days from the date of charge - a shorter period than for which the current system provides.

The group of sheriffs sitting in the youth court will provide supervision of every young offender made the subject of a youth court order.

The court will also have access to:

• A broader and more intensive range of community programmes than currently exist;
• Services which can tackle the social problems which might lead these young people to re-offend; and
• Enhanced intervention programmes specifically targeted at the young offender age group.

Full Story

NEW MEASURES ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION
New measures designed to increase the number of social workers and drive up standards in social work education were unveiled today.

The reforms, building on the Social Work Action Plan announced last April, include:

• A pilot fast-tracking system enabling graduates with relevant degrees or experience to retrain as social workers within 15-18 months for the current diploma in social work;
• Return to Practice programmes to encourage trained staff back into the social work profession;
• Around £2 million over this financial year and next in grants to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), local authorities and voluntary organisations to help meet costs associated with student practice placements; and
• Doubling the money available to voluntary organisations to help provide formal training for their staff.

Students who complete the new social work honours degree, which will replace the diploma in social work from 2004, could be eligible for reimbursement of their student loans, if they sign up to work in areas most affected by current shortages.

The framework for Social Work Education sets out the expectations of the new social work honours degree. It describes the standards required for every student and the standards required from HEIs.

It will not be possible to become a social worker without an honours degree, but students with a relevant honours degree will continue to be able to study for the post graduate diploma in social work. E-learning will be encouraged and £500,000 will be available for specific e-learning projects over two years.

Eligible graduates could have up to £9,000 worth of their student loan reimbursed, subject to certain conditions. They could receive £3,000 at the start of their first social services position, £3,000 at the end of their first year in the post and a further £3,000 at the end of their second year in the job. The scheme will apply to all those entering training in October 2003 and those completing their training from June 2004 onwards.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY sees, as is becoming customary, a Stage 3 debate. This week it is 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 BILL
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 and was passed at Stage 1 on 30^th October 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.

STAGE 2
A number of issues were raised during a fairly lengthy Stage 2 consideration at the Transport and the Environment Committee.

These included:

• Flood prevention. While there was no disagreement that flood prevention needs to be improved, co-ordinated and strategically planned, there was disagreement over some of the remedies proposed, since River Basin Planning is already intended to include flooding.
• Wetlands. Or more specifically, whether or not the word "wetlands" should be included in the definition of "the water environment" in the Bill. The Committee argued yes, and passed amendments to this end. Deputy Environment Minister, Allan Wilson, however, was equally determined that this would bring in vast areas such as peat bog which are not the proper subject of the Water Framework Directive.
• Transfer of planning powers over aquaculture from the Crown Estate to local government. While everyone supports this, the Executive is insistent that this Bill is not the proper place to do it.
• The Regulatory regime - and how much detail on it should be in the Bill.

Click here to read the Explanatory Notes
Click here to read the Policy Memorandum
Click here to read the Bill as amended at Stage 2

NOTE: As it is likely that the debate will take some time, the member's business scheduled for Wednesday evening will be taken at 12:30 on Thursday.

THURSDAY morning is given over to the two single member parties.

It begins with a Green Party Debate on Transforming Public Finance for Social Justice, Regeneration and the Environment.

As usual with opposition debates, the motion has not yet been tabled and so exactly what will be raised is unclear.

As always, however, the motion will appear in the Business Bulletin in due course and a transcript of the debate will be available in the Official Report from 08:00 on Friday.

This is followed by two 45 minute debates from the Scottish Socialist Party.

While the motion for the first, on Abolition of Council Tax, has not been published, this debate is not likely to deviate significantly from the previous SSP debates this subject on 24^th January 2002, Thursday 8^th February 2001 and 30^th March 2000.

See e-Briefs 98, 52 and 12 respectively for more information.

Again, while the motion for the second debate - Support for the February 15 Anti-war on Iraq Demonstration in Glasgow - is likewise unavailable, the title of the debate would seem fairly self explanatory.

This is followed, as was mentioned above, by the item of Member's Business originally scheduled for Wednesday evening - a debate on Regeneration of the Clyde from Labour's Gordon Jackson.

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, the Budget Bill has its Stage 1 debate.

As with all Budget Bills, this represents the beginning of the final stage of the budget process.

See e-Brief 143 for more background information on the Budget Process.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Accompanying Documents

The day is rounded off with a Member's Business debate on British Cattle Movement Service from the Conservatives' Murdo Fraser.

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