Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 152, 3^rd March 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

• Transport and the Environment considers petitions and takes evidence on current planning issues.
• Justice 2 considers a petition on fishing and takes evidence from Justice Minister, Jim Wallace, on judicial appointments.
• Audit considers an Executive response on hospital cleaning and a paper on its Dealing with Offending by Young People Inquiry.
• European takes evidence from Deputy Finance and Public Services Minister, Peter Peacock, on the Greek presidency of the EU and the priorities of the Scottish Executive.
• Justice 1 considers in private a draft report on its Inquiry into Alternatives to Custody.
• Rural Development takes evidence from Rural Affairs Ministers, Ross Finnie and Allan Wilson, on a number of Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs), mostly related to fishing.
• Health considers a draft amendment to the Mental Health Bill and in private discusses Hepatitis C.
• Standards will consider a draft annual report.
• Equal Opportunities considers a draft report on its Inquiry into Mainstreaming Equality in the work of Parliamentary Committees.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

FIREARMS AMNESTY DECLARED
There will be a firearms amnesty in Scotland from 31^st March until 30^th April, it has been announced.

The public will be urged to hand over illegally held firearms without fear of prosecution in order to help remove the weapons from circulation.

The amnesty will coincide with a similar initiative taking place between the same dates in England and Wales.

The last national firearms amnesty in 1996 (following the Dunblane tragedy) saw 23,000 firearms and 70,000 rounds of ammunition surrendered. An amnesty in 1988 (following the shootings in Hungerford) saw 48,000 firearms and 1.7 million rounds of ammunition handed in.

The level of immunity to be offered is limited to the simple illegal possession offences for firearms and shotguns. These are offences under Sections 1(1) (firearms), 2(1) (shotguns), 5(1) and 5(1)A (prohibited weapons) of the Firearms Act 1968 as amended.

The immunity will not cover other offences involving the use of firearms. The police will be able to check surrendered weapons to decide whether a firearms merits forensic examination, although it is expected that the vast majority of weapons handed over will be destroyed.

Full Story

HIGH AWARENESS RESULTS FROM TV AD
High public awareness of the Executive's recent anti drug driving campaign is identified in a new research report.

A new drug driving television campaign was developed after research published in 2001 showed that there was low public awareness of the risks associated with drug driving, and that general knowledge of the law on drug driving was very poor. In addition, research published in 2000 indicated that 18% of people killed in road accidents had used illegal drugs.

The recent campaign targeted young drivers and provided information about the techniques used by the police to detect drug driving. The new report - Evaluation of the Drug Driving TV Advert - shows that public awareness of the campaign was high and that there is an ongoing need to educate 17-24 year olds about the dangers of drug driving.

The main findings of the report are:

• Awareness of advertising and publicity on drugs and driving was high;
• Understanding of the key messages of the advert was generally good;
• Indications that the advert was particularly successful in reaching the 17-24 year old key target group;
• There were some doubts about the enforcement message, with some respondents expressing doubt that drivers in Scotland would be stopped by the police; and
• Most participants found the first half of the advert amusing, but there was some debate amongst respondents over whether the second half had as much impact on viewers.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY gets underway with a debate on two pieces of subordinate legislation - Affirmative Scottish Statutory Instruments (SSIs) on i) the Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning) (Scotland) Scheme 2003 and ii) the Sea Fishing (Transitional Support) No.2 (Scotland) Scheme 2003.

These SSIs will put in place the Executive’s assistance package to help the Fishing Industry deal with the impact of the cuts in Cod quotas imposed by the European Commission (EC). The total package is worth £50 million, £40 million of which will be put into decommissioning and £10 million into transitional support.

The first SSI, on the Fishing Vessels (Decommissioning) (Scotland) Scheme 2003, will give effect to the underlying conservation and sustainable development objectives of the scheme. The intention is to reduce Scottish fishing effort on cod by a further 15% to 20%, in conjunction with parallel initiatives for the rest of the UK.

The second, which implements the Sea Fishing (Transitional Support) No.2 (Scotland) Scheme 2003, puts in place the scheme for transitional support to be made available to fishing communities (it is number two as the first issued contained typographical errors). The scheme will assist on a temporary basis those who wish to stay in the industry, and will help manage the process of rationalisation and restructuring of the catching sector to a more sustainable level. The scheme aims to facilitate a rational economic response to the new economic circumstances implied by the reduced quotas and the days at sea regime.

The intention is to secure a six-month breathing space for the industry to assess its prospects and adjust in a structured manner.

This is followed by a short Ministerial Statement, the subject of which is to be announced.

The full text of the statement, however, and the questions asked thereafter will be available in the Official Report from 08:00 on Thursday.

The final item of business is a brief debate from the Procedures Committee on its reports into Changes to Standing Orders Concerning i) Legislative Matters, Motions and Lodging Written Questions; ii) Elections to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB); and iii) The remit of the European Committee.

Not exactly fascinating stuff, the recommended changes in the three reports can be summarised thus:

i) Legislative Matters, Motions and Lodging Written Questions

Much of this concerns the detailed operation of the Parliament and matters not to those who are not directly concerned with the management of Parliamentary Business.

On Legislative matters, the Committee's findings include recommendations on Manuscript Amendments; introducing a requirement that Members' Bill must be introduced in the same session as the proposal was lodged; the timing of decisions on Bill amendments; and rights of non-committee members at Stage 2.

On Motions, the Committee proposes a provision that any motion which has not been taken by the Parliament shall fall at dissolution.

On Lodging Written Questions, the Committee proposes that the tabling of Written Questions so close to dissolution that an answer prior to dissolution would be impossible should be prevented.

ii) SPCB Elections

• Where there are more candidates than vacancies, there should be initial rounds of voting where candidates may either be eliminated or elected until the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacancies.
• A single vote should be taken (subject to the unanimous agreement of the Parliament) where the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacancies.
• There should be a single round of voting where the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacancies, but where the Parliament does not unanimously agree to the single vote option.

iii) Remit of the European Committee

In a nutshell, the Report recommends that the European Committee should be able to scrutinise the Scottish Executive's external affairs activities.

The afternoon sees Stage 3 consideration of the Homelessness (Scotland) Bill.

Introduced to Parliament on 16^th September by Social Justice Minister, Margaret Curran, and passed at Stage 1 on 18^th December 2002, the Bill aims to:

• Expand the definition of those in priority need by 2012 until it is widened to include everyone, effectively abolishing the priority need category;
• Replace the duty of local authorities to investigate whether a homeless applicant is intentionally homeless with a power to do so. The Bill would require that local authorities offer a Short Scottish Secure Tenancy (SSST) to those who have been found to be intentionally homeless;
• Suspend the local connection criteria which enables one local authority to refer a homeless applicant to another while enabling Scottish Ministers to re-activate the local connection criteria as required; and
• Change provisions relating to repossession to ensure that courts, when deciding whether to grant an eviction order to a private landlord, take into account that rent may be in arrears due to a delay or failure in the payment of Housing Benefit.

Stage 2 in the Social Justice Committee was fairly uneventful. Indeed, all Stage 2 amendments were dealt with in a single session.

Amendments from Robert Brown (LIB DEM) and Lyndsay McIntosh (CON) around the provision of support services were rejected. Executive amendments were passed to deal with the concerns the Committee had expressed about anti-social behaviour, allowing eviction of antisocial tenants holding an SSST and disallowing those with a proven history of anti-social behaviour from holding an SSST. Jackie Baillie’s (LAB) amendment to prevent the use of B&B accommodation for families with dependent children was withdrawn by her following assurances from the Minister, but pressed by Kenny Gibson (SNP) and passed on a division.

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 the European Commission Directive on Food Supplements from the Independent, Margo MacDonald.

THURSDAY morning is devoted to a Conservative Debate on The Scottish Executive's Record.

As usual with opposition debates, the motion has not been tabled. However, it is expected that this will be a very wide ranging debate.

As always, 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.

In the afternoon, after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there is the Stage 1 debate of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill.

A Private Member's Bill introduced by SNP MSP, Michael Russell, on 13^th November 2002, the Bill would require certain public bodies to publish and implement Gaelic language plans which would treat Gaelic and English "on a basis of equality."

The Bill's provisions cover the local government areas of Highland, the Western Isles, the part of Argyll and Bute which was formerly known as Argyll and Bute District Council, and the islands of Arran, Cumbrae and Little Cumbrae.

In its Stage 1 Report, the Education Culture and Sport Committee endorses the general principles of the Bill, but notes its limitations and outlines a number of provisions it believes should be re-examined.

Committee Convener Karen Gillon (LAB) said:

"Our Committee recommends, on balance, that Parliament approve this Bill at Stage 1, although we recognise a gap between the expectations of this Bill and what it can actually achieve. … [T]he Committee is firmly of the view that the duty to prepare language plans proposed in the Bill should be extended to apply to the whole of Scotland. … Whilst sympathetic to the view that investment in Gaelic-medium provision of public services should be seen primarily as part of investment in better service provision generally, we are concerned that no estimate has been provided of the implementation costs associated with this Bill."

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

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Scotland's Fair Trade Towns from the SNP's Linda Fabiani.

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