SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

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

SECTION 2 – NEWS

UK plans to tackle organised crime announced
UK Government proposals for a single agency to tackle organised crime have been welcomed by Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson.

She pledged that the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and the Scottish Police Service would work closely alongside the new agency in the fight against crime.

Proposals announced by the Home Office today would see the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad, and elements of Customs and Excise and the Immigration Service come together in a single crime-fighting agency.

The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency is the equivalent, in Scotland, of the National Crime Squad in England and Wales. The creation of the new agency is intended to preserve current arrangements under which the SDEA and Scottish police forces operate in partnership with existing UK agencies in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive will be working with the UK Government to ensure that any new legislation takes full account of the separate Scottish legal system, the responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament in relation to crime, the role of the Lord Advocate in prosecuting organised crime, and of the other law enforcement bodies that work here.

Full story

Scots benefit from heart treatment advances
Thousands of Scots are benefiting from new advances in heart operations and a fall in waiting times, it has been confirmed.

In its first report, published today, the Scottish Coronary Revascularisation Register highlights progress between 1997 and 2003 during which:

• A total 34,468 patients have been treated;
• Numbers of patients treated annually have risen considerably from 4,661 in 1997 to 7,024 last year; and
• There has been improved outcomes with relatively low mortality, despite increasing numbers of elderly & frail patients.

This has been accompanied by a huge fall in waiting times for revascularisation. Figures from  NHSScotland's Information and Statistics Division (ISD) confirm a fall of nearly five months over that period for patients awaiting bypass surgery.

The Scottish Coronary Revascularisation Register was set up in April 1996. It uses data on diagnosis and revascularisation from 12 NHS hospitals in Scotland. The Register also provides information on events after discharge - even if they occur in the community or in a different hospital.  The Register is the latest in a series of recent independent reports – including the Scottish Audit on Surgical Mortality and outcome indicators from NHS Quality Improvement Scotland - giving a detailed insight into the health service.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY is an opposition day and sees two SNP debates on The future of Scottish Football and Nuclear Waste.

As is usual with opposition debates, the motions have not yet been published, leaving the exact focus of the debates unclear. However, it can be surmised that the former has been inspired by the current troubles of smaller SPL clubs such as Livingston, Dundee and, if today’s press reports are accurate, Dunfermline.  The latter may be a reprise of last week’s Sewel motion debate concerning the UK Energy Bill.

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

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on VisitScotland Tourist Information from the Lib Dems’ Nora Radcliffe.

THURSDAY morning begins with a Procedures Committee debate on three of its reports: the 2nd report of 2003 on Oral Questions in the Chamber; the 1st report of 2004 on Oral Questions and Time in the Chamber; and on the 2nd report 2004 on Emergency Bills.

Hardly matters designed to set pulses racing, the reports’ recommendations can be summarised thus:

1) 2nd Report, 2003 - Oral Questions in the Chamber
This outlines proposals for a new format for Question Time, with Question Time extended to one hour.  The Committee also recommends that Question Time includes around 40 minutes of in-depth scrutiny covering three or four Executive departments on a rota basis which covers all Ministers once every 3 weeks. The remaining 20 minutes would consist of questions to all other Ministers, as currently happens.

2) 1st report, 2004 - Oral Questions and Time in the Chamber
This report recommends that First Minister's Question Time should, for the time being, remain at 12 noon on Thursdays.  It also recommends that Question Time should start at 2pm on Thursdays.

3) 2nd report, 2004 - Emergency Bills
This proposes mainly technical changes to Rule 9.21 to enable it to mesh more smoothly with other relevant Rules, thus reducing the number of procedural motions required in relation to an Emergency Bill.

There is then a short debate on the motion which will appoint the new Commissioner for Children and Young People.

In January 2000, the Executive asked the Parliament’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee to consider the case for establishing a Children’s Commissioner in Scotland. The Committee subsequently introduced a Bill to establish a Commissioner for Children and Young People, which was passed by the Parliament last March.

Thursday’s motion is simply to allow Parliament to approve (or reject, for that matter) the individual who has been selected to fill the post of Commissioner.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time, MSPs debate the Budget (Scotland) Bill at Stage 3.

The last stage of the last stage of the annual budget process, the Bill itself is online here.

The day is rounded off with a Member’s Debate on Sewage Dumping from the SSP’s Rosemary Byrne.

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