Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 149, 10^th February 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Procedures may finally conclude the report on the principles of the Consultative Steering Group.
• Rural hears from fishing interests.
• Health continues with the Mental Health Bill at stage 2.
• Public Petitions has evidence on organic waste spreading, and personal allowances for care home residents.
• Education considers its report on the Gaelic Language Bill.
• European hears from the European Commission and Enterprise Minister, Iain Gray, on corporate social responsibility.
• Finance takes evidence from Deputy Finance Minister, Peter Peacock, on the budget. In addition, Parliament Chief Executive, Paul Grice, and others will report on the Holyrood Project.
• Local Government features support for asylum seekers, and the Prostitution Tolerance Zones Bill.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

FIRST £1 MILLION CRIMINAL CONFISCATION
The largest confiscation of proceeds of crime in Scotland was made today by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) with a court order to confiscate £1,080,622 from Iain Cowper (56) who was convicted of embezzlement in August 2002.

Cowper was convicted of embezzling more than £2.3 million from his employers the Thomson Travel Group. He purchased hotel beds for holiday-makers on behalf of the Group and duly invoiced them, but then banked the cheques intended for the hoteliers, in his own account.

Cowper today received a sentence of five years imprisonment at Edinburgh High Court.

The Crown served a confiscation order for £1,080,622 representing the personal benefit to Cowper from his embezzlement. He will be given a period of six months to pay.

The previous largest confiscation was for £422,780 on December 15, 2000, from a Robert Jones for a Customs & Excise fraud.

In January 2003 the COPFS established a Criminal Confiscation Unit and a new Civil Recovery Unit. The Units were created to enable COPFS to gear up for the implementation of tougher powers of confiscation and seizure of criminal proceeds coming into force during February and March of this year following a change in the law under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 builds upon the criminal confiscation scheme set out in the Proceeds of Crime Act (Scotland) Act 1995 and consolidates and strengthens money laundering offences. Extended powers of financial investigation are also afforded to law enforcement officers.

The Act makes provision for a civil recovery scheme, whereby the proceeds of unlawful conduct are recoverable, and an enhanced cash forfeiture scheme. The cash forfeiture provisions came into force on 31^st December 2002 and civil recovery comes into effect on 24^th February 2003.

Full Story

GLENCOE WINS GOLD FOR BEING GREEN
The Glencoe Visitor Centre has won the prestigious "Gold" Green Tourism Business Scheme award for its success in demonstrating commitment to the environment.

Located in one of the National Trust for Scotland’s most popular conservation areas, the Glencoe Visitor Centre joins 13 other visitor attractions in Scotland to have achieved the highest award.

The building itself, built on the former campsite at Inverigan, is one of the greenest in Scotland and regarded as an example of how best to integrate design with environmental management and educational initiatives.

It is landscaped to blend with its surroundings, was built from sustainable timber sources. Energy efficiency is high and heating is provided using locally sources woodchips, making it Carbon Dioxide neutral.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

With the end of the current Parliamentary Session fast approaching and a number of important pieces of legislation still to be passed, an extension to the week's chamber business - in the shape of Wednesday Morning plenary sessions - begins this week.

WEDNESDAY, therefore, begins with 2 SNP Debates on Education and Economic Growth.

As is normal for opposition debates, the motions have not yet been published and so the focus of each debate is not clear. However, it is likely that the latter will concentrate on the growth figures published last week and featured at First Minister's Question Time.

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 Thursday.

This is followed by a Member's Business debate on Theatre in Scotland from Robin Harper (GRN).

The afternoon begins with Stage 3 of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill provides for a list of persons unsuitable to work with children to be established and maintained by Scottish ministers. Persons on this list will be banned from working with children and will commit an offence if they ignore the ban. Organisations will commit an offence if they employ an individual who is on the list.

The Bill was introduced in the context of the Cullen inquiry into the shootings at Dunblane and the children’s safeguards review undertaken by Roger Kent, both of which identified the need for adequate checks on the suitability of people working with children and young people. The Executive’s intention to establish an index of adults unsuitable to work with children was announced in the first Programme for Government.

The Bill brings Scotland into line with the rest of Britain in ensuring that checks are carried out on the suitability of people working with children and young people. Wider access to criminal record checks has already been introduced by part V of the Police Act 1997 but there is currently no source of information on misconduct not connected to criminal proceedings and the Bill aims to address this. It is stressed however that the Bill does not remove the need for a continuing culture of vigilance and adequate procedures within all organisations that deal with children to protect them.

How will people be referred to the list?

• Organisations employing individuals to work with children (whether paid or unpaid) will be required to report cases to Ministers for referral to the list where a child has been harmed or put at risk of harm, and as a consequence the employee involved has either been dismissed or moved to a position that does not involve working with children.

• Individuals who retire or resign but would otherwise have been dismissed will also be referred.

• The primary responsibility for referral will rest with employers but the Bill also allows other organisations to make referrals: these include the Scottish commission for the regulation of care and employment agencies.

• The court must refer to the Scottish Ministers all those aged 18 and over convicted of certain offences involving children unless they are considered by the court to be unlikely to commit a further offence against a child in future.

What will happen once someone has been referred?

• Scottish ministers will be under a duty to include referrals from the court on the list.

• When the Ministers receive a recommendation from a childcare or other relevant organisation they will give the person to be listed an opportunity to submit observations on their case. The referring organisation will then be able to respond with their own observations.

• Once the Ministers are satisfied that the individual should be included on the list as unsuitable to work with children, they will have to provisionally list that individual, for a maximum of 6 months time. A final decision will then be reached as to whether the individual is suitable to work with children and should be included on the list.

What if a person believes they have been wrongly put on the list?

• An individual put on the list following referral from a child care organisation or other relevant body will have a right to appeal to a sheriff within three months of being listed, or later with the leave of the sheriff.

• If the appeal is unsuccessful further appeals may be made to the Sheriff Principal and, with their leave, to the Court of Session; a person referred to the Court will then undergo the normal appeals process.

• Individuals included on the list will also be able to request periodic reviews by the sheriff if they think that their circumstances have changed – e.g. if the person had been included on the list due to drug or alcohol dependency.

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

This is followed by an Executive debate on Fisheries.

While the motion has not been published and the precise focus not confirmed, it is likely that this will relate to the impact of the European fishing deal agreed in Brussels in December.

The full text of the motion 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 Thursday.

THURSDAY morning sees two Committee debates.

The first, from the Justice 2 Committee, is on the report of its Inquiry into the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

This was an unusual Inquiry - in terms of both the length of time it ran for (some 20 months) and the amount which changed during the course of it. The process, in the words of Convenor, Pauline McNeill (LAB), was "a dynamic one."

Published on 21^st January 2003, the report outlines its concerns regarding the pressures and delays in the High Court. It also acknowledges and welcomes the changes which have already been made in the Procurator Fiscal Service in response to the Inquiry, which began in May 2001. The report also contains recommendations on tests which might be applied in the future to determine if subsequent changes have in fact led to an improved service.

Within the report, the Committee expresses concern that an under-resourced service will not be able to prepare and prosecute cases to the necessary standard. The Committee accepts that there have been few, perhaps surprisingly few, cases which have come into public awareness as having gone badly wrong. However, during fact finding trips undertaken as part of the Inquiry, examples of legal staff preparing what appeared to be unmanageable amounts of work in exceptionally short timescales, caused the Committee to consider there to be an unacceptable level of risk in the system.

In addition, the Committee recommends that the Solicitor General is given specific responsibility for ensuring effective communication between police and fiscals about what is required from police reports and for ensuring that there are adequate police-fiscal liaison arrangements at all levels. The Committee has also concluded that the Department should ensure that the level of resources allows cases from non-police reporting agencies (i.e. customs & excise, DVLA, Air Accident Investigation Branch) to be prosecuted wherever this is in the public interest.

Click here to read the executive summary
Click here to read the report in full

This is followed by a debate from the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee on the report of its Inquiry into The Future of Tourism in Scotland.

Published on 29^th January 2003, the report says that industry operators should take the lead to drive forward tourism growth in Scotland. It also calls for a more proactive approach to be taken in attracting new direct air services to Scotland especially low cost carriers.

The report follows 8 months of Inquiry and covers a wide range of issues including skills and quality, business tourism, the progress of the Scottish Executive's 2000 tourism strategy as well as the roles of agencies such as VisitScotland, the British Tourist Authority and Area Tourist Boards.

In the report, the Committee sets out a number of recommendations for action. Specifically, the report:

• Welcomes the Scottish Executive's new Route Development Fund, but calls for a vigorous campaign by VisitScotland to exploit the potential and develop new budget airline routes into Scotland;
• Supports the idea of VisitScotland working together with the British Tourist Authority (BTA) and recommends the creation of a 'Scottish presence' in the BTA offices around the world;
• Recommends more private sector representation on the boards of VisitScotland and other key bodies and a stronger lead by the industry;
• Calls for an investigation into whether the ownership of 3 of the main airports in Scotland by a single company - BAA Scottish Airports (who own Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports) limits effective competition and is a cause for concern; and
• Recommends more specific evaluation and target setting by VisitScotland to ensure that its impact on the industry can be properly measured and judged.

The report also highlights areas for further investigation including compulsory registration and licensing and the use of Public Service Obligations as a mechanism to encourage tourism growth.

Click here to read the report in full

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there is the Stage 3 debate on the Budget (Scotland) No 4 Bill.

An annual occurrence, this debate, which formally decides how Scotland’s resources are allocated, is the final stage of Budget Bill, which in itself represents the final stage of the budget process.

Click here to read the accompanying documents

The day is rounded off with a Member's Business debate on Lead Pipes in Drinking Water Supplies from the Lib Dems' Robert Brown.

[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Articles ] [ Calendar ] [ Contacts ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]

[ Copyright ] [ UK Online ] [ Scottish Parliament ]

Previous Page