Scottish Parliament e-Brief, Issue 228

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

Victim Information and Advice now Scotland-wide
Over 47,000 victims and vulnerable witnesses have been assisted by the Victim Information and Advice Service (VIA), part of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Since VIA was launched on 14^th June 2002, VIA teams have been set up throughout the country, providing a service to victims and witnesses and the roll-out of the service throughout Scotland was completed on 30^th December 2004.

Now every Procurator Fiscal can refer victims of serious crime, bereaved relatives and vulnerable witnesses to their local VIA team in order to provide them with a way through the criminal justice process.

Better support for young and disabled students
Thousands more young students will be eligible for maximum bursaries and an allowance scheme for disabled students is to be extended to include all postgraduate study, under plans announced today.

Student support changes for 2005/06 mean that the maximum Young Students Bursary (YSB) will go up from £2,150 to £2,395. This is accompanied by a sharp increase in the family income ceiling determining eligibility for a maximum bursary - from £10,740 to £17,500. The number of eligible students is set to increase by around 8,000 as a result.

The Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) scheme - currently available mainly for undergraduate and HNC/HND courses - will be extended to all those undertaking full and part-time postgraduate study.

WEDNESDAY begins with a Executive Debate entitled Closing the Opportunity Gap (or tackling poverty to you and I).

This follows the publication last month of ten new targets aimed at delivering better life opportunities for Scotland's vulnerable people and deprived communities. According to the Communities Minister, they will help lift thousands of people out of the poverty trap with sustained support to improve health, job prospects, training or education. The publication of these 10 targets follows the outlining by the Executive of 6 key objectives for tackling poverty and deprivation.

At the same time, the Minister announced details of the £318 million Community Regeneration Fund (CRF), which will play a role helping to meet these new targets.

The Executive’s targets are:

TARGET A: Reduce the number of workless people dependent on DWP benefits in Glasgow, North & South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire & Inverclyde, Dundee, and West Dunbartonshire by 2007 and further by 2010. For this Target, local employment partnerships will be asked to agree the size and nature of the target for their area, by February 2005. For example, the Glasgow Welfare to Work Forum set targets in 2003, to reduce the number of working age people claiming key benefits by 15,000 by the end of 2007 and 30,000 by the end of 2010.

TARGET B: Reduce the proportion of 16-19 year olds who are not in education training or employment by 2008. For this Target, as part of the Executive’s work to develop an employability framework, it will analyse the make-up of this group and their reasons for disengagement from school, work or further education. It will then specify the level of reduction that it seeks to achieve.

TARGET C: Public sector and large employers to tackle aspects of in-work poverty by providing employees with the opportunity to develop skills and progress in their career. NHSScotland will set an example by providing 1000 job opportunities, with support for training and progression once in post, between 2004 and 2006 to people who are currently economically inactive or unemployed.

TARGET D: To reduce health inequalities by increasing the rate of improvement for under-75 Coronary Heart Disease mortality and under-75 cancer mortality (1995-2010) for the most deprived communities by 15% by 2008.

TARGET E: By 2008, ensure that children and young people who need it have an integrated package of appropriate health, care and education support.

TARGET F: Increase the average tariff score of the lowest attaining 20% of S4 pupils by 5% by 2008.

TARGET G: By 2007 ensure that at least 50% of all looked after young people leaving care have entered education, employment or training.

TARGET H: By 2008, improve service delivery in rural areas so that agreed improvements to accessibility and quality are achieved for key services in remote and disadvantaged communities. For this Target, the Executive will work with an advisory Group of representatives from key delivery agencies and rural communities to agree the rural areas to be targeted, consult with local communities to identify the key services to be improved, and agree with the relevant community planning partnerships the specific targets for improvements to accessibility and quality to be achieved.

TARGET J: To promote community regeneration of the most deprived neighbourhoods, through improvements by 2008 in employability, education, health, access to local services, and quality of the local environment.

TARGET K: By 2008 increase the availability of appropriate financial services and money advice to disadvantaged communities to reduce their vulnerability to financial exclusion and multiple debts.

This is followed by a Sewel Motion on the Constitutional Reform Bill, currently before the UK Parliament.

This is the Bill which will create a UK-wide Supreme Court. A Sewel motion is required as it will impact upon certain devolved areas.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on the Eco Schools Programme from Cathie Craigie (LAB).

THURSDAY begins with Stage 1 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Bill.

This proposes to merge the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) to create the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (SFHEFC). The Bill intends to create the single body which will have a duty to provide “coherent strategic decision making” at a national level covering both sectors.

The Bill also sets out the general duties of both Scottish Ministers and of the new Funding Council, with Ministers having high level responsibilities for the policy context. It also explains the specific responsibilities of the new Funding Council in terms of allocation and administration of funding to the funded bodies.

The new Council will have the power to attend and address any governing body meeting of a funded body which relates to the issue of financial support. It will also have a duty on the Council to work and share information with certain key bodies, as well as placing a duty on these bodies to provide information as reasonably required by the Council. (Section 22 set outs the key bodies included in these provisions.)

A new provision on fees (section 8) is also included to allow for possible fee changes by Ministers i.e. a maximum fee level set and different fee levels for different courses. It allows Ministers to use the conditions of grant to control tuition fees. They will be able to set the fee levels by subordinate legislation, which is subject to the affirmative procedure. The Bill will also give Ministers the power to enable the Executive to channel additional funds to the new Funding Council for specific purposes (set out in the bill) and areas of importance, for example the support of collaboration.

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 is an Executive debate on Climate Change.

This is a topic which, by virtue of last week’s storms, currently features more prominently in the public consciousness than it may ordinarily do.

The debate also coincides with today’s warnings from researchers that damaging storms will become more frequent. The researchers, from the University of the Highlands and Islands and Southampton, have been studying wave heights in the Atlantic over the last nine years and found that high seas were causing more frequent disruption to communities and transport networks. The researchers' work is continuing and is being co-ordinated by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, a network of more than 200 researchers working on ways to minimise the risks posed by climate change.

For its part, in November 2000, the Executive published its climate change programme. Designed to complement the UK Climate Change Programme, it sets out a range of regulatory, voluntary and educational measures aimed at delivering emissions reductions in areas devolved to the Executive. Last month, the Executive began to consult on a range of options to strengthen the response to the threat of climate change. The consultation document raises, for the first time, the possibility of separate Scottish climate change targets.

The consultation document highlights and seeks views on (amongst other matters) the following issues:

The 40% renewables target;
The Emissions Trading Scheme;
The commitment to spend 70% of transport budget on public transport; and
The Freight Facilities Grant.

The latest emissions data for Scotland show that Scottish emissions overall fell by 5.7% between Kyoto base years1 and 2002. Emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, fell by 3.2% between 1990 and 2002 - despite over a 25% growth in the Scottish economy over the same period.

Revised UK and Scottish Programmes will be published in the first half of 2005.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Robert Burns National Heritage Park from Adam Ingram (SNP).

Wednesday 19^th January 2005
14:35 – 16:30	Executive Debate: Closing the Opportunity Gap
16:30 – 17:00	Sewel Motion: Constitutional Reform Bill
17:00 - 17:30	Member’s Business: Eco Schools Programme (Cathie Craigie (LAB))

Thursday 20^th January 2005
09:30 – 12:00	Stage 1 Debate: Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Bill
12:00 – 12:30	First Minister's Question Time
14:00 – 15:00	Question Time: * Enterprise, Lifelong Learning and Transport; * Justice and Law Officers; and * General Questions
15:00 – 17:00	Executive Debate: Climate Change
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Robert Burns National Heritage Park (Adam Ingram (SNP))

Monday 17^th January 2005
PM	Environment and Rural Development	In a first for Holyrood, a Commons Select Committee will meet in Committee Room 2. Members of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee will meet informally with members of the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Development Committee, before taking formal evidence from representatives of Scotland’s fishing community.
Tuesday 18^th January 2005
AM	Equal Opportunities	Evidence on the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Bill is followed by evidence on the Disability Discrimination Bill, which is currently before the UK Parliament.
	Finance	The Committee will take evidence on the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Bill’s Financial Memorandum.
PM	Health	Members visit Stonehaven to take evidence on eating disorders.
	Enterprise and Culture	A packed agenda includes evidence from Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Rt Hon Jim Wallace MSP, on the revised Smart Successful Scotland strategy, the relaunch of the Individual Learning Accounts scheme and the Executive’s Green Jobs Strategy. The Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Allan Wilson MSP, will also give evidence on the Scottish Executive’s response to the Committee’s 6th Report 2004, Renewable Energy in Scotland.
	Justice 2	Stage 2 of the Fire (Scotland) Bill begins.
	Local Government and Transport	A total of 5 different panels of witnesses are scheduled to give evidence on the UK Railways Bill.
Wednesday 19^th January 2005
AM	Public Petitions	New petitions cover topics including the establishment of a National Heritage Committee and the regulation of health professionals. The Committee will also return to the petitions on the compulsory blood testing of suspects and a national policy for travelling showpeople.
	Environment and Rural Development	The Committee will consider a statement of reasons for not consulting on the two proposed Member’s Bills – the Liability for Release of Genetically Modified Organisms (Scotland) Bill (Mark Ruskell) and the Plastic Bag Environmental Levy Bill (Mike Pringle).