Scottish Parliament e-Brief, Issue 273

Review of handling of Fife murder case
An independent review of Fife Constabulary and Fife Council's report on teenage murderer, Colyn Evans, has found that, while it would have been impossible to predict that his behaviour would escalate to murder, there were "considerable shortcomings" in their handling of this case.

Colyn Evans was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2005 for the murder of Karen Dewar, a 16 year-old living in the same neighbourhood as him. On the day of his sentencing, Fife Constabulary and Fife Council published a joint report on the management of the case.

The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) carried out a review of this joint report on Evans and concluded that it did not cover all the issues, including details of his time at Geilsland School, and how and why his local authority supervision was ended.

The Fife report also failed to explain why police did not undertake two risk assessments, why some key information about Evans' activities was not recorded on the sex offenders' database, and why more information was not included from the Children's Reporter.

Today's report follows a request by Scottish Ministers in June 2005 to scrutinise the original Fife report, identify issues which required further examination and work with the council and police to address these, and update the Fife report accordingly.

Inspectors have also set out a series of local and national issues which must be addressed to improve the way such cases are managed in the future.

Key issues for Fife identified in today's report include:

The Council should review policy and practice relating to young people with sexually aggressive or problematic behaviour. Risk management plans must be developed in all cases where there are concerns about risk of harm to others.
The Council should review the training needs of staff working with such young people. It should also continue to review its supervision and recording policies to ensure case records reflect important decisions that are discussed and agreed with supervisors.
Fife Constabulary should ensure that all decision-making procedures and processes are documented, and continue to review the way in which it manages non-registered sex offenders.
Fife Constabulary should continue to address the data management issues highlighted by SWIA and HMIC.
Both organisations should continue to progress work to identify current areas of best practice in relation to joint cases, and produce an action plan to ensure such practices are used in all appropriate circumstances.

New project to improve teaching of children with dyslexia
A pioneering new project at the University of Aberdeen will train new teachers in how best to help children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, it was announced today.

The project will create a new Chair of Inclusive Studies at the university and is the result of discussions between the First Minister, Sir Jackie Stewart, President of Dyslexia Scotland and University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Duncan Rice.

The aim of the Chair of Inclusive Studies project is to embed within Initial Teacher Education inclusive approaches which will enable teachers to support pupils with literacy difficulties and dyslexia, and to work with pupils who display a whole range of difficulties.

The Scottish Executive is providing £1.4 million in 2005-10 to Aberdeen University to carry out this project. Sir Jackie Stewart has committed to acting as a spearhead to attract funding for the continuation of the project, which will consider teaching methods related to other additional support needs, in project years six and seven (2011-2012).

WEDNESDAY begins with a Ministerial Statement on Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill, passed by the parliament at the end of last month, provides for the implementation of an EU Directive requiring energy performance certificates to be made available to new owners and tenants. This will, as the name suggests, enable owners, buyers or tenants to assess a house’s energy performance.

The energy performance certificate will contain an assessment of the relative energy performance of the building, which is likely to be a number on a scale. It will give information on the interpretation of this and be accompanied by recommendations for cost-effective improvement of energy performance. Owners of residential property which they place on the market, and selling agents (if any) who place residential property on the market on behalf of owners, will have a duty to make the certificate available to prospective purchasers.

In right to buy sales, there will be a duty on the landlord to make available a certificate to tenants expressing interest in purchase.

Where a tenant enters into a Scottish secure tenancy (SST), there will be a duty on the landlord to make available a certificate to the tenant before the tenancy is signed. A duty to make available a certificate is to be placed on persons assigning, granting sub-lets of, or exchanging SSTs. The duty will also apply on the granting of a tenancy of a type detailed in Schedule 1 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.

For the private rented sector, the duty to make available a certificate to prospective tenants is to apply to all types of tenancies.

Introduced by the Standards and Public Appointments Committee, the Bill will require MSPs to register certain non-financial interests. This legislation will replace the existing secondary legislation (the Members' Interests Order) which has governed Members' interests since 1999.

At the moment, MSPs only have to register financial interests, but the Bill proposes the use of an objective "influence" test to help MSPs determine when to register certain non-financial interests. In other words, Members should be required to register those interests which the public might reasonably think could influence an MSP’s actions.

It would be for each Member to ask themselves not whether they would or might be influenced by the interest, but whether a fair minded and informed observer would conclude that their impartiality would be or appear to be prejudiced by the interest. This provides a formal underpinning to the current guidance on declaring an interest prior to participating in parliamentary proceedings.

The new Bill also differs from the existing legislation in the following respects:

The registration of non-financial interests reflects the approach taken in the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Act 2000 which applies to interests which councillors in Scotland must register and declare.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on the Benefits of Dialogue between Steiner and Mainstream Education Sectors from Mike Pringle (LD).

Bills regarding family law are always controversial and this one has proved no different.

It aims to provide a legal framework to ensure that children are protected by adults who have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and their rights. Its provisions include:

Establishing parental responsibilities and rights for unmarried fathers who jointly register the child's birth;
Reducing separation periods for divorce from five years to two; and
Legal safeguards for cohabiting couples.

Ministers are also bringing forward a number of non-legislative initiatives to help families who need support to deal with the challenges they face. These include:

Preparation of a draft charter for grandparents to gain wider recognition of the role played by grandparents;
Introduction of a Parenting Agreement for Scotland - a tool that parents could use to resolve conflicts over parenting time such as guidance on the kinds of informal contact arrangements that tend to work well;
A public information campaign designed to inform people of changes to family law and signposting sources of help and advice; and
Working with national bodies to support mediation services across Scotland, which can help to resolve conflict.

The Bill also includes provision to extend the scope of matrimonial interdicts to improve protection offered to vulnerable cohabitants. The Bill will amend the existing legislation to ensure that protection extends to cover the victim's everyday life and offers protection to vulnerable cohabitants as well as spouses. These reforms will complement existing legislative provisions to tackle domestic abuse and strengthen the protection available to victims.

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

With the later than usual conclusion of business, Member's Business is held directly following First Minister's Questions. Thursday's motion is from Paul Martin (LAB) and is entitled Excess Winter Deaths in Greater Glasgow.

Wednesday 14th December 2005
14:35 – 15:05	Ministerial Statement: Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
15:35 – 17:00	Stage 1 Debate: Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Bill
17:00 – 17:30	Member’s Business: Benefits of Dialogue between Steiner and Mainstream Education Sectors (Mike Pringle (LD))

Thursday 15th December 2005
09:15 – 11:40	Stage 3: Family Law (Scotland) Bill
11:40 – 12:00	General Question Time
12:00 – 12:30	First Minister's Question Time
12:30 – 13:00	Member's Business: Excess Winter Deaths in Greater Glasgow (Paul Martin (LAB))
14:15 – 14:55	Themed Question Time: * Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning; * Justice and Law Officers
14:55 – 18:30	Stage 3: Family Law (Scotland) Bill (cont.)

Tuesday 13th December 2005
AM	Equal Opportunities Committee	The Communities Minister gives evidence on the Scottish Executive Review of Race Equality Work in Scotland.
	Audit	The Committee will receive a briefing from the Auditor General for Scotland on his report entitled "Overview of the performance of the NHS in Scotland 2004-05".
	Finance	The Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform and officials give evidence on the the relocation of public sector jobs.
PM	Health	The Committee will consider a petition on the financial implications of residential care.
	Justice 2	The Deputy Justice Minister gives evidence on the implementation of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.
	Local Government and Transport	The Committee will consider a petition from the Home Safety Committee of the Scottish Accident Prevention Council calling for all local authorities to employ Home Safety Officers.
Wednesday 14th December 2005
AM	Education	Stage 1 evidence on the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill comes from a range of figures form the world of education.
	Environment and Rural Development	Stage 1 evidence on the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill comes from 2 panels of animal welfare organisations.
	Justice 1	Stage 1 evidence on the Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill is followed by consideration of the provision of family support services arising from the Committee's consideration of the Family Law (Scotland) Bill.