Scottish Parliament e-Brief, Issue 248

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

W.H.O. expert praises Scottish progress
Professor Didier Pittet, one of the world's leading experts on infection control, today hailed Scotland's approach as one for other countries to follow. At a conference organised by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, Professor Pittet, Director of the Infection Control Programme of University of Geneva Hospitals, said:

"I am delighted to be visiting Edinburgh. Scotland is amongst European leaders in tackling healthcare associated infection (HAI). This builds on the great historic Scottish contribution to international understanding of disease and infection.

"I am very impressed by the work of the HAI Task Force which is addressing this problem in a comprehensive manner. That includes setting clear standards, undertaking research to inform decision-making and good practice, educating staff and members of the public, and establishing clear lines of responsibility at ward and manager level.

"In particular, I am pleased that Scotland has followed the Geneva model, markedly improving hand hygiene by making available alcohol-based handrubs at every bedside."

"This is a major step forward and, taken with the other measures, should bring about the kind of improvements we have seen in Geneva. Similar strategy is to be promoted within the framework of the Global Patient Safety Challenge which I have the honour to lead on the behalf of the World Health Organization's (WHO) World Alliance for Patient Safety."

Census Test to be held across Scotland
A Census Test is to be carried out across Scotland on 23rd April 2006, it was announced today.

The test is designed to help decide exactly how the 2011 Census will be carried out, and will run in parts of Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire, Highland, Stirling, Perth & Kinross and Argyll & Bute Council areas.

It will try out possible new Census questions and will test different ways of making the Census form easier to complete, particularly for groups of people who do not find it easy to complete Census forms. And it will help the design of the follow-up to the Census - the processing of the information on the forms, the quality checks and the production of the Census results.

The test includes rural areas with many holiday homes, inner-city areas with a relatively high number of ethnic minority people and peripheral housing estates.

While the contents of any Statement must, of course, be made first to parliament, it is likely that this will allow the First Minister to report back on his recent visit to

Malawi

. During the trip, the First Minister announced that Scots who decide to work in

Malawi

as VSO volunteers will get financial backing from the Executive.

This is followed by a Local Government and Transport Committee Debate on its Inquiry into Issues Arising from the Transport ( Scotland ) Act 2001.

The first Transport Act for over 20 years, the policy objectives of this piece of legislation were to deliver a sustainable, effective and integrated transport system for Scotland . The aim was to empower local authorities to deliver local solutions to local problems and promote partnership working. The Act includes legislation to give powers to Local Authorities to address growing congestion and environmental problems in cities and larger towns.

The Act legislated for, among other things:

· Quality Bus Partnerships. These sought to improve bus services by giving the force of law to partnerships between local authorities and bus companies to provide quality services to passengers; and

· Quality Bus Contracts. If quality partnerships are tried and fail, or are inappropriate, the Act also allows for the Scottish Executive to approve “Quality Contracts”, bringing an exclusive franchise by competitive tendering awarded to a single operator.

The remit of the Local Government and Transport Committee inquiry was to investigate the impact of the Quality Partnerships and Quality Contract provisions of the Act. The main conclusions are:

· While in some areas the deregulated market has led to better services, in others there remain issues to be resolved. Namely: the withdrawal of marginal services; and the overprovision of services with inefficient competition in key corridors in certain urban areas – Glasgow was particularly highlighted.

· There is little incentive for councils and bus operators to enter into statutory quality partnerships given the costs and the effectiveness of voluntary partnerships.

· However, the Committee concluded that there may be scope for the development of statutory quality partnerships, especially under Regional Transport Partnerships where they are established.

· There is a need for clarification of the powers of local authorities and the traffic commissioner in relation to quality partnerships.

· The Executive could do more to “kick start” the development of quality partnerships in areas where they are needed.

· A statement is required from the Executive on how it will support councils and Regional Transport Partnerships considering statutory quality partnerships.

· The Committee would also like the Transport Minister to report to the Committee on the progress of the partnership commitment to monitor whether the quality partnership powers in the Act are adequate to protect and enhance evening, weekend and rural bus services.

· In the Committee’s view, quality partnerships are seen by Scottish Ministers as an option of last resort.

· The Executive should consider whether the development of quality contracts can be supported at arms length.

· While not seeking re-regulation, the committee would like the Executive to indicate whether it would consider re-regulation if quality contracts were shown to have been tried and failed.

· The national concessionary travel scheme was welcomed.

· The Bus Users Complaints Tribunal (BUCT) should have its remit and powers extended so that it can take responsibility for longer distance coach services and can report more generally on issues affecting bus users.

· The Committee calls on the Executive to review BUCT’s operations and consider whether any additional powers are required.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on Protecting Land Used for Organised Sport and Other Forms of Physical Activity from Mike Watson (LAB).

A Private Bill, it was introduced on 27 October 2004 by its promoter, The Baird Trust.

The objective of the Bill is to transfer the property, rights, interests and liabilities of The Baird Trust, a Scottish charity, to a new company limited by guarantee, also a Scottish charity, and known as The Baird Trust. When the transfer has been completed, the current Trust will be dissolved and the Acts of Parliament under which it was established and its constitution amended will be repealed.

At the time of writing, no motion has been published. However, it is likely that the progress which is being made towards implementing the new measures contained in the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 will be discussed.

This is followed by General Question Time and First Minister’s Question Time.

The primary policy objective of the Bill is to better protect children from sexual abuse. Two elements of the Bill focus on this objective:

· “Meeting a child following certain preliminary contact” – creation of a new criminal offence aimed at preventing an adult sexually abusing a child, following some earlier communication between the two during which the adult seeks to gain the child’s trust. The Bill is concerned with the problem of sexual abuse following what is sometimes described as “grooming.”

· Risk of Sexual Harm Orders (RSHOs) – creation of a new type of civil preventative order. The Bill would allow a court to impose an RSHO, following an application by the police, prohibiting an adult from doing certain things set out in the order. The prohibitions would have to be necessary for protecting a particular child or children in general, from harm. An order could be made without any allegation of behaviour amounting to a criminal offence.

A third element of the Bill seeks to better protect both adults and children from sex offenders:

· Sexual Offences Prevention Orders (SOPOs) – allowing courts to impose SOPOs when dealing with people who have been prosecuted for certain offences. Courts are currently able to impose such orders following an application by the police.

The day concludes with a Member’s Business debate on the Powers of the Scottish Parliament from John Swinburne (SSCUP).

Wednesday 1st June 2005
14:35 – 15:05	Ministerial Statement: Scotland and Africa
15:05 – 17:00	Local Government and Transport Committee Debate: Inquiry into Issues Arising from the Transport ( Scotland ) Act 2001
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Protecting Land Used for Organised Sport and Other Forms of Physical Activity (Mike Watson (LAB))

Thursday 2nd June 2005
09:15 – 10:30	Preliminary Stage Debate: Baird Trust Reorganisation Bill
10:30 – 11:40	Executive Debate: Antisocial Behaviour
11:40 – 12:00	General Question Time
12:00 – 12:30	First Minister's Question Time
14:15 – 14:55	Themed Question Time: * Education and Young People, Tourism, Culture and Sport; * Finance and Public Services and Communities
14:55 – 17:00	Stage 3 Debate: Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences ( Scotland ) Bill
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Powers of the Scottish Parliament (John Swinburne (SSCUP))

Tuesday 31st May 2005
AM	Audit	The Committee returns to the Auditor General’s Section 22 report on Argyll and Clyde Health Board’s accounts, considering a response from the Scottish Executive to its recent report.
PM	Enterprise and Culture	David Taylor, Chief Executive of the SFA; Lex Gold, Executive Chairman of the SPL; and Peter Donald, Secretary of the Scottish Football League appear before the Committee to give evidence for the inquiry into Scottish football.
	Justice 2	The Committee considers draft reports on the Management of Offenders etc. ( Scotland ) Bill and its youth justice inquiry.
	Health	Stage 2 of the Smoking, Health and Social Care ( Scotland ) Bill continues.
	Local Government and Transport	Dr Jeanette Findlay, from the Department of Economics at the University of Glasgow , gives evidence on the tendering of ferry services in the Clyde and Hebrides .
Wednesday 1st June 2005
AM	Education	2 panels of witnesses give evidence for the pupil motivation inquiry.
	Justice 1	Stage 1 evidence on the Family Law ( Scotland ) Bill comes from a range of witnesses, including Deputy Minister for Justice, Hugh Henry.
	Environment and Rural Development	The Committee will consider its approach to scrutiny of the Scottish Executive’s proposal to seek the Parliament’s consent to the UK Parliament legislating on devolved matters in the UK Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill.