WEDNESDAY begins with a Ministerial Statement on RegLeg (short for Regions with Legislative Power - a co-operative venture among areas of Europe which have their own government and Parliament within an EU member State).

First Minister, Jack McConnell, is currently president of RegLeg and its fifth annual conference is being held in Edinburgh today and tomorrow.

The details of the statement, of course, must be made first to the Chamber.  However, it was announced today that Scotland is set to take part in a project which will improve the way the EU Commission works with devolved governments and regions across Europe.

This is followed by a Public Petitions Committee debate on Public Petition PE535, seeking an inquiry into past institutional child abuse.

The Petition calls for the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Executive to (a) make an inquiry into past institutional child abuse, in particular for those children who were in the care of the State under the supervision of religious orders and (b) make an unreserved apology for said State bodies and to urge the religious orders to apologise unconditionally.

Last March, following consideration of responses from the Scottish Executive and the Cross-Party Group on Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse in relation to the issues raised, the Committee noted that the Executive was considering conducting some form of inquiry into this matter and agreed to ask the Executive to provide firm details and a proposed timetable for such an inquiry early in the new session. 

There has, however, been unhappiness from the Committee that the Executive has failed to respond to it, despite a number of reminders.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate entitled St Andrew’s Day  from Dennis Canavan (IND).

THURSDAY begins with an Executive debate on Aquaculture (or fish farming, to you and I).

The aquaculture industry in Scotland employs over 1,500 people directly, generating a £500 million turnover at “farm gate” and through primary processing.  It also employs around 6,000 through its farming and downstream activities.  As such, it makes an important contribution to the Scottish economy.

However, there are some criticisms of the industry, based on the belief that it is detrimental to the environment and that there are human health risks from the fish produced.

The Executive, therefore, has undertaken research at a range of representative sea lochs to examine whether fish farming is having an undesirable effect in particular localities.  To date, this work has found no such impacts.  Also, independent research commissioned into the claim that there is a link between nutrient inputs from fish farming and algal blooms connected with human health risks from eating affected shellfish has suggested that there is little or no evidence to support this view.

This is followed by First Minister’s Question Time.

In the afternoon, after Question Time (for the departments featured in the themed section this week, see Section 1 above), there an Executive debate on Efficient Government.

This follows the publication today of Efficient Government - Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity, a plan to deliver more efficient government across the public sector.

It sets out in detail how efficiency savings will be achieved - at national and local level - to ensure taxpayers' money is used more productively.  Savings made in the administration and delivery of services will then be invested in frontline services.

In June, Ministers set an initial target of delivering recurring annual savings of £500 million by 2007-08. The Executive now intends to go further and says these plans will deliver at least £745 million a year by 2007-08.

Over the three year period to 2007-08, this represents a total of more than £1.7 billion in cash savings. The annual savings of at least £745 million are projected to increase to a minimum of £1 billion by 2009-10.

Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, Tom McCabe, has said these initial savings are only the start and further efficiencies are planned with more work to be carried out on realising further cash savings from portfolios, together with work on asset management and centrally-driven action to reduce sickness absence rates. This will include a programme of time-releasing efficiencies aimed at producing an improvement of at least 1% a year in productive time across all parts of the public sector - equivalent to £300 million a year increased productivity by 2007-08.

There will also be three initial areas for co-ordinated action across the public sector.

1.      Savings from improved procurement with the bulk of public sector organisations (125 bodies) using eProcurement Scotland by 2007-08;

2.      Public sector organisations merging shared support - payroll, HR, IT and finance and transactional services; and

3.      Streamlining administration.

The Executive intends to lead the drive for efficiency savings. Its own administration budget has been held flat over the Spending Review period, 2005-08 - a real terms cut of more than 6% - and the Executive has set itself a target of 2.5% a year in efficiencies.

Planned savings across the public sector include:

• £20 million from NHS reform of back office services and logistics;

• £12 million from reforming legal aid; and

• £9 million through reduced costs for social housing.

The government will now work with the public sector to develop detailed project plans to ensure that the identified savings are realised. Ministers will monitor progress regularly and call on the expertise of bodies such as Audit Scotland.

The Executive is also developing plans for more long-term efficiencies, and is working with a group of recognised experts from the public and private sector to develop a series of pilot projects which will test out innovative approaches to the organisation and delivery of public services.

Chamber business concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Domestic Abuse Services for All Victims from Mike Rumbles (LD).