Scottish Parliament e-Brief, Issue 267

New powers to improve child protection
Moves to further underpin reform in Scotland's child protection system were unveiled today.

The Joint Inspection of Children's Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill will introduce new legal powers of joint inspection and access to information for those involved in inspecting children's services. The Bill was introduced following pilot joint inspections in Highland and East Dunbartonshire, where it became clear that organisations were not certain about what information they could, and could not, lawfully share with the inspection teams.

The Bill applies to agencies such as: Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE), the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA), Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMCIC), the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (SCRC) and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) and sets out to ensure that inspectors, as well as the individuals and organisations from which they may require to obtain information, are aware of the legal requirement and protocols involved in such information sharing.

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Recycling facility for Inverclyde
£4 million plant which will turn household waste into valuable resources has been officially opened in Inverclyde.

Materials collected from over 40,000 households and recycling points will be sorted at the new facility. Paper, cardboard, cans, plastic bottles, glass and textiles will all be sorted before being recycled.

Inverclyde Council has received over £11 million from the Executive's Strategic Waste Fund to improve kerbside collections of recyclable material, improve recycling centres and points and build and operate the materials recycling facility.

The new facility is designed to process 9,000 tonnes per year over a normal five day shift period. Once the materials are sorted they are sent to local merchants and reprocessors.

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SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY begins with an Executive debate on Freedom of Information.

This week marks the first anniversary of the implementation of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and this debate will give MSPs the chance to debate its performance. Although it will doubtless feature, the scope of the debate will be wider than how it has impacted upon the Scottish Parliament and the Executive.

The Act:

Established a legal right of access to information held by a broad range of Scottish public authorities;
Balanced this right with provisions protecting sensitive information;
Established a fully independent Scottish Information Commissioner to promote and enforce the Freedom of Information regime;
Encouraged the proactive disclosure of information by Scottish public authorities through a requirement to maintain a publication scheme; and
Made provision for the application of the Freedom of Information regime to historical records.

Part 1 of the Act conferred a general right of access to information held by Scottish public authorities. It also includes the conditions which need to be fulfilled in order to access the information.

Part 2 lists the categories of information which are exempt from Freedom of Information. These are either absolute exemptions, never to be disclosed (such as the health records of a deceased person); class exemptions, automatically excluded (for example, information concerned with national security); or content exemptions, where exclusion depends on the particular information (an example is law enforcement).

Part 3 created the post of Scottish Information Commissioner. The Commissioner promotes good practice, but also, under Part 4, enforces the Freedom of Information regime by mediating between an applicant and an authority in cases where information has been withheld.

This is followed by a Ministerial Statement on Influenza Contingency Plans.

This will allow the Minister to set out what steps are being taken to prepare for any seasonal flu outbreak. As with any Ministerial Statement, however, the details must be made first to Parliament.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on A 21st Century Bridge for 21st Century Fife from Scott Barrie (LAB).

THURSDAY morning begins with two debates from the Conservatives on Children with Special Needs and The Decline of Scottish Manufacturing.

As is usual with opposition debates, no motions have yet been published. As always, however, the motions will be published in Section F of the Business Bulletin in due course and a full transcript of the debates will be available in the Official Report from 08:00 on Friday.

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

In the afternoon, following Themed Question Time (for the featured departments, see Section 1 above), Stage 3 of the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Bill takes place.

The Bill aims to reduce levels of reoffending and improve the management of offenders by greater integration of the work of the criminal justice agencies. Measures in the Bill to tackle reoffending include:

Placing a new duty on local authorities to form Community Justice Authorities;
Placing a new duty on the Scottish Prison Service to work with local authorities and other partners;
Giving new Ministerial powers of direction and intervention;
Putting forward new provisions to establish a Home Detention Curfew scheme;
Allowing new powers to strengthen the system for dealing with serious sexual offenders; and
Providing a mechanism to recover compensation paid by Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority from offenders.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Air Pollution in Glasgow from Patrick Harvie (GRN).

Wednesday 2nd November 2005
14:35 – 16:15	Executive Debate: Freedom of Information
16:15 – 17:00	Ministerial Statement: Influenza Contingency Plans
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: A 21st Century Bridge for 21st Century Fife (Scott Barrie (LAB))

Thursday 3rd November 2005
09:15 – 10:40	Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Children with Special Needs
10:40 – 11:40	Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: The Decline of Scottish Manufacturing
11:40 – 12:00	General Question Time
12:00 – 12:30	First Minister's Question Time
14:15 – 14:55	Themed Question Time: * Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning; * Justice and Law Officers
14:55 – 17:00	Stage 3 Proceedings: Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Bill
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Air Pollution in Glasgow (Patrick Harvie (GRN))

Tuesday 1st November 2005
AM	Equal Opportunities	The Commission for Racial Equality (Scotland) and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland give evidence on the independent review into policing and race relations in Scotland.
	Finance	The cross-cutting inquiry into deprivation hears from representatives of various Health Boards, local authorities and other agencies.
	Audit	The Committee will receive a briefing from the Auditor General for Scotland on his report entitled "Overview of the Water Industry in Scotland", before receiving a briefing on the section 22 reports on 5 Health Boards.
	Subordinate Legislation	Figures from the Food Standards Agency Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Scotch Whisky Association give evidence on the regulatory framework in Scotland.
PM	Enterprise and Culture	Minister from Tourism, Culture and Sport, Patricia Ferguson and officials give evidence on the memorandum from the Scottish Executive on the London Olympics Bill, currently under consideration in the UK Parliament.
	Health	A range of witnesses give evidence on the Abolition of NHS Prescription Charges (Scotland) Bill.
	Justice 1	Minister for Justice, Cathy Jamieson, Executive officials and senior figures from the Scottish Legal Aid Board give evidence on the Budget Process 2006-07.
	Local Government and Transport	2 panels of witnesses, including Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, George Lyon and Minister for Transport, Tavish Scott, give evidence on the Budget process 2006-07.
	Justice 2	The Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service give Stage 1 evidence on the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.
Wednesday 2nd November 2005
AM	Environment and Rural Development	A range of witnesses give evidence from Ireland via video-link on the Environmental Levy on Plastic Bags (Scotland) Bill, before Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, Rhona Brankin, gives evidence on issues arising from the Scottish Executive’s consultation on a draft crofting reform bill.
	Justice 1	The Committee will take evidence from the General Register Office for Scotland on a piece of subordinate legislation relating to the registration of civil partnerships.