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

SECTION 2 – NEWS

Plans to reduce greenhouse gases
Scotland’s energy intensive industries will be consulted on plans to reduce UK levels of greenhouse gas emissions, it was announced today.

Electricity generators, oil refineries and manufacturing plants are among those being asked to contribute towards reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

The Executive is joining the UK Government in consulting on the UK draft National Allocation Plan.  This sets out how greenhouse gas emission allowances will be allocated to operators of installations for the first phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) which begins in 2005.

The EU ETS is the most significant measure in the EU Climate Change Programme.  It targets the largest industrial emitters of carbon dioxide, allowing them to trade emission allowances and make reductions where they are most economically viable.  This will distribute the cost of emission reduction, ensuring the overall level of carbon emissions is reduced at the lowest unit cost to industry.

For more on emissions trading, see here: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/ERADEN/ACEU-AQT/00016327/EUETS.aspx

The EU Emissions Trading Directive was published in the Official Journal on October 25, 2003.  The market mechanism was chosen as the most favourable option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for larger energy users. Companies who can reduce emissions more efficiently can go further, and sell excess permits to companies finding it more difficult or expensive to meet targets.  This allows the target to be met more cost effectively, whilst the fixed level of permits ensures that the minimum reduction will be met.

The scheme will cover installations that carry out the following activities :

·         Combustion installations;

·         Mineral oil refineries;

·         Coke ovens;

·         Metal ore processing;

·         Iron and steel production;

·         Cement and lime production;

·         Glass manufacture;

·         Ceramics manufacture; and

·         Pulp, paper and board production

Full story

Campaign to boost adult literacy and numeracy
The one in five adults in Scotland who have some difficulties with reading, writing or numbers, were today urged to brush up their skills.

The awareness raising TV adverts will highlight the everyday problems that poor literacy or numeracy skills can cause and, through a new national hotline and website, give details of how people can get help locally to improve these skills.

Leaflets, posters and other materials will be distributed throughout Scotland to complement the adverts.

The campaign follows the success of a similar initiative in England and the Republic of Ireland which raised awareness of the issue and helped de-stigmatise the problem, encouraging people to seek help.

Learndirect scotland’s literacy and numeracy campaign will be run over two years, and cost approximately £1 million. The learndirect scotland national helpline can be contacted on 0808 100 1080.

The Executive is investing £51 million over five years to help improve adult literacy and numeracy in Scotland. It is on target to help 80,000 Scots by March 2004, and 150,000 by 2006. Support for learners is also provided through the Learning Connections team at Communities Scotland, which works with adult literacy practitioners to ensure training and support are available across Scotland.

The figure – one in five adult Scots has some difficulties with reading, writing or number skills – is taken from the 1996 International Adult Literacy Survey.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

Chamber business on WEDNESDAY will doubtless begin with a few asides about politicians talking rubbish, as MSPs debate the National Waste Plan.  The debate, led by the Environment and Rural Development Committee, focuses on the Inquiry which the Committee undertook into the plan.

With the publication in 1999 of National Waste Strategy: Scotland, waste management issues were brought together at a strategic national level for the first time. The Strategy set out how an integrated system for sustainable waste management would be implemented. The Executive’s National Waste Plan was launched in February 2003. 

While waste management is currently provided at relatively low cost in Scotland, our record on recycling and other environmentally and economically efficient management of waste is extremely poor. Historically, reliance on landfilling of waste has been extremely high. This process has significant potential environmental effects, including methane emission, contamination of water courses and ground water, etc. and also impacts on local communities. There is also a growing recognition that valuable resources are being lost by the failure to reduce or recycle waste.

The National Waste Plan, therefore, aims to build on a major commitment of funding to transform Scotland's record on reduction, reuse, recycling, composting and recovery and the Committee undertook to assess the main factors which are facilitating and inhibiting progress towards the national targets, and identify some of the challenges for future development.

The Committee’s recommendations include:

·         Making urgent progress in setting challenging targets for the reduction of landfilling of key non-municipal waste streams;

·         The development of robust and challenging waste reduction and re-use targets, to be incorporated into the National Waste Plan as a matter of urgency;

·         The development of a clear strategy to ensure that the infrastructure required to deliver waste management solutions does not impact disproportionately on particular communities;

·         That the Minister should consider specifying a minimum distance which must be maintained between new landfill developments and residential areas.

·         Fully developing the opportunities available through the green jobs strategy and other initiatives, with the enterprise companies urged to take a pro-active approach to promoting the opportunities;

·         That the Executive produces an action plan to stimulate change in the packaging industry and to consider tougher targets for reducing and recycling packaging; and

·         That the contribution of community sector groups must be effectively integrated and developed as the National Waste Plan proceeds.

Some Facts:

·         Around 9 million tonnes of waste is produced by the commercial and industrial sector in Scotland each year, and treated or disposed of by the private sector.

·         A further 3.23 million tonnes of municipal waste is collected by local authorities.

·         It is estimated that 91% of this municipal waste is landfilled, with only 4% recycled and 3% composted.

·         This record compares poorly with other European countries. For example, Denmark has set a target of 63% for recycling and composting by 2008, and Austria recycled 75% of municipal solid waste in 2002.

Click here to read the report in full

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on the Economic Potential of the Renewable Energy Industry from Labour’s Christine May.

THURSDAY is an opposition day, with 2 debates in the morning from the SNP: one on the Impact of Top-up Fees on Higher Education in Scotland and another on Fishing.

While neither motion has yet been published, it is likely that the former will concentrate on the debate around how any proposed changes to Higher Education funding in England will affect Scottish Universities and that the latter will be a reprise of the recent debates over quotas.

The full text of both motions, however, will be published in the Business Bulletin in due course.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time, there is an Executive debate on the Comprehensive Programme of Education Reform.

Back in Autumn last year, the Education Minister, Peter Peacock, signalled major changes to what and how pupils learn.  In a keynote speech at the Scottish Education and Teaching with Technology conference, he outlined plans to reform the curriculum, the assessment and testing system, and reports to parents.

The changes - designed to drive up standards in schools by putting in place a balanced, flexible and manageable curriculum which is appropriately assessed - include:

·         For the first time, a seamless 3-18 curriculum to ensure pupils move smoothly from pre-school to primary to secondary;

·         Replacing the annual 5-14 survey of attainment with a new Scottish Survey of Achievement (SSA) to provide a more complete and robust picture of national attainment;

·         Replacing the current system of 5-14 national tests with assessment procedures which place a greater emphasis on supporting and improving learning; and

·         More meaningful information for parents on how their children are progressing.

At the time, the Minister also announced that a steering group would be established to produce a draft outline of the underlying principles and framework for a 21^st century curriculum.  The draft principles and framework will go out to consultation this year.

The day is rounded off with a Member’s Debate on Recognition of Kinship Care from the Scottish Senior Citizens’ Unity Party’s John Swinburne.

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