Scottish
Parliament e-Brief
Issue 230,
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SPCB Question Time |
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Executive Debate: Elderly People |
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Sewel Motion: Railways Bill |
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Member’s Business: St Mirren Football Club (Wendy Alexander (LAB)) |
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Conservative Debate: Energy Policy |
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First Minister's Question Time |
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Question Time: * Education
and Young People, Tourism, Culture and Sport; * Finance and
Public Services and Communities; and * General
Questions |
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Ministerial Statement: Sexual Health |
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Stage 1 Debate: Budget ( |
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Member’s Business: Infertility Services in |
IN COMMITTEE
This week’s likely highlights in the
Committee Corridors include:
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Audit |
Work on the NHS Financial
Performance Overview continues. |
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Finance |
As part of its input into the
Public Administration Select Committee’s inquiry into Civil Service
Effectiveness, the Committee will take evidence from John Elvidge,
Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Executive. |
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Subordinate Legislation |
Evidence for the inquiry into the
regulatory framework in |
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The Minister for Tourism, Culture
and Sport gives evidence on the |
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Two panels (one of which features
the Minister) give evidence for the eating disorders inquiry. |
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Stage 2 of the Fire ( |
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A range of figures from the world
of charity give evidence on the Charities and Trustee Investment ( |
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The Committee will be updated on
the work of the Social Work Services Inspectorate. |
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Items on the agenda include the Protection
of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Billl; a
Petition urging the Scottish Executive to investigate apparent widespread
undue influence of children by any family members as a result of parental
separation; and another from the Miscarriages of Justice Organisation,
calling for the provision of an aftercare programme in the form of a halfway
home to help people who have been wrongfully incarcerated and have served
long terms of imprisonment. |
SECTION
2 - NEWS
Land
allocated for expansion of
Around 200 hectares of land has been earmarked for future development at
Ministers have approved an alteration to the Glasgow and Clyde Valley
Structure Plan made by various local councils, including Glasgow and
Renfrewshire, to secure long term expansion at the airport. This means that
land will be reserved to expand the terminal capacity and allows for the
possibility of providing an additional runway, which is in line with
recommendations made by the
The alteration has been approved by the Executive with a reservation in respect of the widening of the M8 motorway between junctions 26 and 29.
The Glasgow and the Clyde Valley Structure Plan covers the areas of
Proposals to create a new 15
minute direct rail link from
Doors
open to world's biggest tourism market
Scotland can reap huge benefits from a new agreement allowing
Chinese tourists to visit the UK, says Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace.
Currently, only business visitors and students are allowed to come to the
134,000 Chinese people
visited the
SECTION
3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY begins with an innovation – the first ever SPCB Question Time. This will see SPCB members, including yours truly, answering questions on matters which come within the SPCB’s remit (chiefly the internal workings of the Parliament).
This is followed by an Executive debate on Elderly People.
As no motion has as yet been published, the specific reason for the debate is not known. However, members will undoubtedly take the chance offer to debate the effectiveness of Scottish Parliament initiatives aimed at improving older people’s quality of life – such as free personal care; free bus transport; and free central heating – and what further steps they would wish to see implemented.
This is followed by a Sewel Motion on the Railways Bill, currently before the UK Parliament.
This is the Bill which will wind up the Strategic Rail Authority and hand
enhanced powers to the devolved administrations in Wales, London and, of
course, Scotland – hence the need for a Sewel
motion.
The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on St Mirren Football Club from Wendy Alexander (LAB).
THURSDAY begins with a Conservative debate on Energy
Policy.
As is usual with opposition debates, no
motion has yet been published. However,
it can be surmised that the contentious issues of windfarms and nuclear power
will feature.
As always, however, the motion will be
published in Section F of the Business
Bulletin in due course and a full transcript of the debate will be
available in the Official
Report from
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 a Ministerial
Statement on Sexual Health.
The contents of the Statement must,
of course, be made to Parliament first.
However, it’s set against a backdrop of
The Expert Group’s remit was:
* To reduce
unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections;
* To enhance the
provision of sexual health services; and
* To promote a
broad understanding of sexual health and sexual relationships that encompasses
emotions, attitudes and social context.
The consultation on the draft Sexual
Health Strategy closed last year, with the results to be independently assessed
and reported on by a specialist researcher.
There then follows the Stage 1
debate of the Budget (
The Scottish Draft Budget for 2005-06 was published on 15th October 2004, following the announcement of the Executive’s spending plans for the next three years as contained in Building a Better Scotland: Spending proposals 2005-08: Enterprise, Opportunity, Fairness. Nine parliamentary Committees considered the expenditure plans of the Executive departments and reported their findings to the Finance Committee.
The debate on a Budget Bill is an
annual occurrence, and represents the final stage of the annual budget
process. Exceptionally keen readers will
have noted that, just before Christmas, the Finance Committee led a debate on its
report on the Budget Process, which is the penultimate stage.
The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Infertility Services in Scotland from Mary Scanlon (CON).
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