Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 151, 24^th February 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Public Petitions will hear from petitioners on the Barra air link.
• Finance will decide whether or not to pass the Budget Order.
• Justice 1 takes evidence from Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, on alternatives to custody, and from Deputy Justice Minister, Hugh Henry, on legal aid.
• Enterprise covers Intermediary Technology Institutes; higher education funding; and the British Airports Authority’s views on tourism.
• Health has Deputy Health Minister, Frank McAveety, on the OFT report on community pharmacies, plus more on Hepatitis C compensation.
• Rural Development hears from gamekeepers keen to be allowed to kill birds of prey.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

PROCEEDS OF CRIME ACT IN FORCE
Criminals operating in Scotland should find it more difficult to profit from their crimes under new legislation which comes into force today.

The Executive has made two Orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The first introduces a code of practice for the use of investigation powers and the second will enable the Lord Advocate and Scottish Ministers to access information and ensure that efforts in pursuing the proceeds of crime are joined up.

The first of the Orders which come into effect today is the Investigations: Code of Practice Order. This introduces a code of practice for people carrying out functions of investigation under the Act in relation to criminal confiscation, civil recovery or money laundering. The Act introduces three strong new powers of investigation: customer information orders, account monitoring orders and disclosure orders. These allow investigators to access detailed information about the financial dealings of suspected criminals.

The second Order, the Information to and from the Lord Advocate and Scottish Ministers Order, designates people who may now exchange information with the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers over and above those already designated in the Act. It will allow the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Ministers to access information from more people about suspect activities, for example social security fraud, offences involving motor vehicles and activities which might be used for money-laundering.

The offences indicative of a criminal lifestyle in Scotland already specified in the Act are: money laundering; drugs trafficking; directing terrorism; people trafficking; arms trafficking; counterfeiting; intellectual property offences; living on the earnings of prostitution, soliciting for immoral purposes or running a brothel; blackmail or extortion.

Implementation of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 is now almost complete. Only Part 3 – on Confiscation - remains to be commenced in Scotland. It is likely to be commenced before the end of March.

Full Story

EXECUTIVE WELCOME FOR NEW GP CONTRACTS
Health Minister, Malcolm Chisholm, has welcomed the announcement of a new contract for general medical services delivered by GP practices.

The contract has been agreed between the BMA's General Medical Practitioners' Committee and the NHS Confederation on behalf of all four parts of the UK. It will now be subject to a ballot of all UK GPs.

Mr Chisholm said:

"If accepted, [the contract] will be accompanied by substantial additional resources for the development of primary care services.

"As part of the deal, payments to GP practices will for the first time be tied to the quality of care they provide to patients. The contract will also link investment to the specific health needs of local communities and practice populations, rather than simple payments for services and allowances to doctors."

The contract follows on from the framework document published in April 2002. Over the next few weeks, the NHS Confederation and GPC will hold a series of roadshows to explain the details of the contract. This will be followed by a ballot of GPs on whether or not they wish to accept it or not.

If the ballot results in a yes vote, the contract will be phased in from April 2003. Elements of the new contract require changes to legislation. These parts of the contract will not be introduced before April 2004.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY gets underway with a Conservative debate on Health.

Unfortunately, however, as the motion has not been tabled, exactly what aspect of Health, or the Health Service, 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 Thursday.

This is followed by an Executive debate on the Educational Attainment of Looked After Children.

Attainment levels for looked after children do not compare favourably with those of other children.

As Education and Young People Minister, Cathy Jamieson, says: "Looked after children are among the most vulnerable in our society - it is our shared responsibility to ensure they enjoy the same educational opportunities as other young people. Raising attainment levels is the best way to close the opportunity gap and ensure young people leave care with the skills and knowledge they need for the adult world."

This debate follows the publication at the end of last year of a report into a £10 million drive to improve education for looked after children.

At the heart of the drive was the announcement by the First Minister in October 2001 that local authorities would receive £500 for every child in care in a family setting and £2,500 for every child looked after in a children's residential home. In all, 11,000 young people would benefit from new books, computers and homework facilities.

The report examines how these resources were spent.

Speaking after the publication of the report, Cathy Jamieson said:

"This funding has made a significant difference to the education experience of many of our looked after children, as well as increasing their understanding and awareness of future career choices.

"Local authorities have invested this money wisely to benefit children being cared for now and for future needs.

"Funding helped to create studies in residential units, upgrade libraries and lighting and to provide books, early learning toys, outdoor equipment, arts and crafts materials, musical instruments and extra tuition - particularly for those with specific needs.

"Materials and equipment has been bought to help prepare young people for jobs. The money also supported projects which helped young people at risk of exclusion from school."

The funding has also helped local authorities to progress towards three targets set by Cathy Jamieson in January this year following local authority responses to the "Learning with Care" report. These are:

• All looked-after children should receive full-time education;
• All looked-after children should have a care plan which addresses their educational needs; and
• All schools should have a teacher who is designated to champion the interests of looked-after children.

Click here to read the report "Improving the Educational Attainment of Looked After Children
- Additional Resources for 2001/2002"

The afternoon begins with Stage 3 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill.

It is a measure of the technical complexity of this Bill that the Explanatory Notes from the Executive run to some 84 pages. However the basic premise is simple. So-called real burdens are clauses in title deeds which affect what an owner can and cannot do on his or her property - from, for example, running a glue factory to building a wall along a boundary. Real burdens have been the subject of much litigation over the past 200 years and the law, unsurprisingly, is now in need of updating and simplification.

The Bill has ten parts, the last of which only concerns technicalities.

Stage 1 at the Justice 1 Committee were as consensual as for any Bill which has passed through the Parliament. It seems that nobody thinks this Bill is a bad idea, and the Committee unanimously recommended its general principles. Amongst the points at stage 1 were the following:

• The Law Society suggested that the balance is moving too far away from the feudal superior in favour of the current owner, and the Scottish Landowners Federation were very exercised about the rules concerning adjacent property.
• There was discussion of the circumstances in which tenants, as well as owners, might be able to enforce burdens.
• There was discussion of how common burdens might be enforced where private owners and social tenants share a former local authority block.

Amongst the Committee’s suggestions were the following:

• That the issue of mixed tenure estates be handled by the Housing Improvement Taskforce. However, mixed tenure closes should be part of the planned Tenement Bill.
• In a sheltered housing complex where the flats are owned by the occupiers, a 75% vote of the owners is required to change the manager. The Executive’s suggestion that it might revise the 75% threshold downwards was welcomed.

Stage 2 of the Bill was also technical and consensual, with no votes taken. Although there will be a large number of technical amendments at stage 3, the effect of some of them will be to make the resulting law simpler. Some likely issues include:

• Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, has agreed to look a means to ensure that land sold for social housing continues to have that use after subsequent sales.
• Local authorities have in the past used burdens to ensure that land which they pass on at little consideration continues to be used for that purpose. An amendment at stage 2 (an "economic development burden") will allow this to continue. Likewise an Executive amendment assisting local authorities in improving estates that include right-to-buy properties was passed.
• Amendments to increase the rights of sharing owners in sheltered accommodation were passed, with more being laid for stage 3. This has involved agreement with the DTI over some reserved aspects.

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

The day is rounded off by a Member's Business Debate on Ethical Investment from Labour's Angus Mackay.

THURSDAY begins with the Preliminary Stage Debate of the National Galleries of Scotland Bill.

This Private Bill is being promoted by the Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland and is intended to allow the removal of a small piece of land from Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. This will enable the completion of the Playfair construction project which will link the Royal Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland. In order to do this, existing legislation which prohibits the construction of buildings on any part of the Gardens needs to be disapplied.

As readers of the Committee News will be aware, a five member Committee has been established to consider the bill.

See e-Brief 144 for an outline of the Private Bill procedure.

Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Explanatory Notes
Click here to read the Promoters' Memorandum

This is followed by Stage 1 of the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill.

A Private Member's Bill from former SNP, now independent, MSP, Margo Macdonald, the Bill, if enacted, would enable local authorities to designate areas within their boundaries as "prostitution tolerance zones" and would amend section 46 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 to ensure that loitering, soliciting or importuning by prostitutes within such zones is not an offence.

The Bill does not seek to legislate for prostitution generally but rather aims to allow local authorities to designate an area where soliciting will not fall within the scope of the criminal law.

In its Stage 1 Report, the Local Government Committee outlined that whilst it does not believe it to be the intention of the Bill, one of the outcomes of its implementation would be an acceptance, in principle, of soliciting. It therefore recommends that the Bill should be rejected.

However, the Committee believes that the current legal situation is not acceptable and does not serve the interests of the women involved or the wider community. The Committee was concerned to hear of the issues such as sexual abuse, poverty and drug problems, which lead women into prostitution in the first place.

The report therefore recommends that the Scottish Executive conducts a full examination of prostitution in Scotland, with a view to changing the current legislation.

Click here to read the Stage 1 Report in full
Click here to read the Bill as introduced
Click here to read the Explanatory Notes
Click here to read the Policy Memorandum

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there is an Executive Debate on European Year of Disabled People (EYDP).

Launched in Scotland on 23^rd January 2003, European Year of Disabled People is designed to ensure disabled people achieve equal status in society.

To mark the launch, £400,000 was announced for a range of disability projects:

• £200,000 to the Scottish steering group to fund disability awareness-raising events; and
• £200,000 over two years will be awarded to two disability organisations - Inclusion Scotland and the Scottish Disability Equality Forum - to improve consultation with, and access for, disabled people.

The European Year of Disabled People (EYDP) is an EU initiative.

The EYDP Scottish Steering Group includes representatives from the Disability Rights Commission, Capability Scotland, Deafblind Scotland, Enable, Inclusion Scotland, RNIB, SCVO, Scottish Council on Deafness, Scottish Disability Equality Forum, Advocacy Safeguards Agency, Sense Scotland, STUC, UPDATE, CoSLA and Sally Witcher who is an independent adviser on disability.

Initiatives planned to date include an event for young disabled people and their families, a European arts exhibition by disabled people and local events.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on the Wick Ambulance Service from the Liberal Democrats' Jamie Stone.

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