Scottish Parliament e-Brief, Issue 172

Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 172, 29^th September 2003

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

Wednesday 1^st October 2003
14:35 – 17:00	Equal Opportunities Committee Debate: Report on Mainstreaming Equality in the Work of Committees of the Scottish Parliament
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Transport in Southern Edinburgh (Mike Pringle (LIB DEM))

Thursday 2^nd October 2003
09:30 – 12:00	Executive Debate: Anti-social Behaviour
12:00 – 12:30	First Minister's Question Time
14:30 – 15:10	Question Time
15:10 – 17:00	Executive Debate: Anti-social Behaviour (cont.)
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Private Escorting of Abnormal Loads (Margaret Mitchell (CON))

IN COMMITTEE
This week’s likely highlights in the Committee Corridors include:

Tuesday 30^th September 2003
AM	Audit	The Committee will receive a briefing from the Auditor General for Scotland on his report on Hospital Cleaning, before taking evidence for its Inquiry into GP Prescribing from NHS Scotland Chief Executive, Trevor Jones and Scottish Executive Health Department officials.
	Finance	Members look at End Year Flexibility this week, with evidence from Finance and Public Services Minister, Andy Kerr and Executive officials.
PM	Health	As part of the Budget process 2004-05, evidence will be taken from Health Minister, Malcolm Chisholm; NHS Chief Executive, Trevor Jones; and Scottish Executive officials.
	Justice 2	Evidence on the Criminal Justice Bill currently before the UK Parliament comes from Deputy Justice Minister, Hugh Henry. The Minister will then give evidence on the Vulnerable Witnesses (Scotland) Bill, together with Executive officials.
	Local Government and Transport	Members take evidence on the Budget process 2004-05 from representative of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). They will then consider a paper on proposals to take evidence on issues surrounding the Strategic Rail Authority’s proposals for rail maintenance and the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition Survey.
Wednesday 1^st October 2003
AM	Justice 1 & Justice 2	The Committees meet jointly this week to consider the Budget process 2004-05. Oral evidence from representatives of a wide range of interested parties including senior police officers, rank and file police officers, offenders, directors of social work and the Procurators Fiscal.
	Public Petitions	New petitions this week include one from trade union PCS on the Relocation of Scottish Natural Heritage headquarters to Inverness. Current petitions returning for further consideration include those on the Elgin bypass, and Health and safety hazards caused by seagulls.
	Education	Education Minister, Peter Peacock, gives evidence on school discipline and the budget.
	Communities	The Committee takes evidence on the budget from a wide range of witnesses.
	Environment and Rural Development	Evidence on the National Waste Plan Inquiry comes from representatives from CBI Scotland, the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland, the Recycling Advisory Group Scotland, Waste Aware Scotland and Business Environmental Partnership.
	Standards	The Committee considers a draft report of its investigation into the complaint against Kenny MacAskill MSP and Tricia Marwick MSP.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

Free flu jab programme launched
Scotland's annual winter flu campaign was launched by the Health Minister today, with the aim of achieving over 70% uptake for a second year.

The Don't Let The Flu Bug Bite campaign encourages everyone aged 65 and over, and those under 65 with long term medical complaints, to come forward for their free jab to protect them from the influenza virus this winter. This year's campaign aims to build on the high level of uptake achieved over the last few years and protect those most vulnerable against the complications of flu this winter.

Last year, uptake for 65s and over reached the new 70% target which will also apply this winter. Those over 65 will also be offered pneumococcal vaccination to protect them against invasive pneumococcal infection which can cause severe forms of pneumonia, septicaemia and meningitis.

Individual letters will be sent to all those eligible for immunisation on age grounds. Flu co-ordinators for each NHS board area will be issuing letters to those eligible to receive free immunisation over the next few weeks. The letter will remind them of their eligibility and will urge them to contact their GP practice if they do not hear about an appointment for immunisation by late October.

The cost of the flu vaccine for the immunisation programme is around £3 million. Associated Payments to GPs will total £7 million. The Executive's integrated publicity campaigns for flu and pneumococcal immunisation will cost £0.8 million in total.

Full story

Support for crime victims
Victims of youth crime are to be offered access to information about the action being taken against the perpetrator under a new pilot scheme.

The Support and Information for Victims of Youth Crime (SIVYC) Scheme will run in Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire for a period of 12 months, with a view to rolling out the project nationally thereafter.

The SIVYC pilot scheme, backed today by Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry, will give the victims of youth crime access to information from the Children’s Reporter about specific action being taken in their case. It will also become possible for parents whose child has been the victim of youth crime to gain relevant support and information. Until now, no information about hearing cases could be given beyond “a child has been referred to the panel”.

The SIVYC scheme will:

Grant victims of youth crime access to information from the Children’s Reporter about specific action being taken in their case. Where the victim is a child, the child's parent or carer can be granted access to information.
See Victim Support Scotland granted funding to develop, with partners, information on the youth justice system and to offer advice and counselling services for victims.
See the Children’s Reporter empowered by Order to share information with Victim Support Scotland to better enable them to provide support and advice.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY begins with a debate from the Equal Opportunities Committee Debate on its report into Mainstreaming Equality in the Work of the Scottish Parliament.

Mainstreaming is a relatively new concept developed in recent years to shift the focus away from equal opportunities as an “add on” to considering it as integral to the policy and legislative process. In other words, mainstreaming is aimed at ensuring that equality issues are “built in” from the beginning rather that “bolted on” at the end.

While equal opportunities is a reserved matter there are two exceptions to this reservation. First “the encouragement of equal opportunities, and in particular of the observance of the equal opportunity requirements”, (other than by prohibition or regulation). The second exception allows duties to be imposed on, inter alia, any Scottish public authority with mixed functions or no reserved functions. The duty that can be imposed is ‘to make arrangements with a view to securing that the functions of the office-holder are carried out with due regard to the need to meet the equal opportunities requirements’ i.e. the substantive requirements of UK law on equal opportunities.

The report of the Consultative Steering group which was unanimously agreed by the Parliament states that “Equal Opportunities should be mainstreamed into the work of the Parliament and through the demands of and scrutiny by the Parliament, into the work of the Executive.”

There must be a commitment to implementing access to quality training on Mainstreaming available to MSPs their staff and all Scottish Parliament staff. (This training should not be confused with Equal Opportunities training.) The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Parliament adopts the following definition of mainstreaming:

“Mainstreaming equality is essentially concerned with the integration of equal opportunities principles, strategies and practices into the everyday work of Government and other public bodies from the outset, involving everyday policy actors in addition to equality specialists. In other words, it entails rethinking mainstream provision to accommodate the equal opportunities categories as identified in the Scotland Act.”

Click here to read the report in full

The day is rounded off with a member’s business debate on Transport in Southern Edinburgh from the Lib Dems’ Mike Pringle.

THURSDAY is sees the second of the new-style “open debates” (where members debate the issues around a particular topic, rather than debating a specific motion.) The topic this week is Anti-social Behaviour.

A major issue during the spring election campaign summer, anti-social behaviour is the number one priority for many MSPs. With the public consultation on the forthcoming Anti-social Behaviour Bill now concluded, it is likely that MSPs will use this debate to outline their community’s response to this consultation.

As always, a transcript of the full debate will be available in the Official Report from 08:00 on Friday.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time, the debate on Anti-social Behaviour concludes.

The week in the Chamber concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Private Escorting of Abnormal Loads from the Conservatives’ Margaret Mitchell.

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