Scottish
Parliament e-Brief
SECTION
1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE
CHAMBER
|
Wednesday 22nd February 2006 |
|
| 14:35 – 17:00 | Stage 1 Debate: Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill |
|
17:00 – 17:30 |
Member’s Business: Beauly to Denny Power Line: Concerns Over Increase of Childhood Leukaemia (Bruce Crawford (SNP)) |
|
|
|
|
Thursday 23rd February 2006 |
|
|
09:15 – 11:40 |
Stage 1 Debate: Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill |
|
11:40 – 12:00 |
|
|
12:00 – 12:30 |
First Minister's Question Time |
| 14:15 – 14:55 |
*
Education and Young People, Tourism, Culture and Sport; |
|
14:55 – 17:00 |
Executive Debate: Fair to All, Personal to Each - the Progress on Waiting |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Member's Business: Air Ambulance Trials in Orkney (Jim Wallace (LD)) |
In Committee
| Tuesday 21st February 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Equal
Opportunities |
3
panels of witnesses involved in further and higher education give
evidence to the disability inquiry. |
| Audit |
The
Auditor General for Scotland
briefs the Committee on his progress report on the
Scottish Further Education Funding Council, his section 22 report on
Inverness College and his report on tackling waiting times.
Members will also consider a response from the Scottish Executive on
the Northlink ferry services contract. |
|
| Finance |
Finance
and Public Service Reform Minister, Tom
McCabe and officials give evidence to the inquiry into
the cost of the local authority single status agreement. |
|
| PM | Justice
2 |
The
Committee receives a briefing from Scottish Executive officials on
likely Scottish Executive amendments to the Police, Public Order
and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill at Stage 2. |
| Health |
Lord
Sutherland, formerly chair of the Royal Commission on Long Term Care
of the Elderly, is among the witnesses giving evidence to the care
inquiry. |
|
| Local
Government and Transport |
The
Committee will take evidence on the National Bus Travel Concession
Scheme for Older and Disabled Persons (Scotland) Order 2006,
before deciding whether to recommend that
the Order be approved. Members will also
consider a motion from the Minister for Transport recommending the
approval of the draft Transfer of Functions from the Strathclyde
Passenger Transport Authority and the Strathclyde Passenger Transport
Executive to the West of Scotland Transport Partnership Order 2006. |
|
| Wednesday 22nd February 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Communities |
Business
representatives give stage 1 evidence on the Planning etc.
(Scotland) Bill. |
| Justice
1 |
The
Committee considers a draft Stage 1 report on the Scottish
Commissioner for Human Rights Bill. |
|
| Public
Petitions |
New
petitions cover topics including support for the Dalkeith Bypass
and requiring
criminals to make financial reparation to the victim(s) of their
crime. The Committee also returns to the petitions on NHS24,
Burns heritage and medical negligence. |
|
| Environment and Rural Development | The inquiry into developments in the biomass industry hears from environmental, renewable energy and forestry interests. | |
SECTION 2 - NEWS
Inspectors
report on education
Scotland's strong educational system stands up well to
international comparisons and produces many young people who perform well in
school and beyond, according to education inspectors. But - in a
report published today - inspectors also call for a determined drive to
tackle underperformance and raise standards.
In "Improving Scottish Education", inspectors set out their findings based on education inspections since 2002. The publication is the first ever to look at all stages of Scottish education from pre-school to community learning. It sets out strengths and areas where education must improve in the future.
Key strengths include:
Confidence in the education system expressed by stakeholders, including parents and learners themselves;
Achievements of many learners;
Overall good quality of the curriculum, learning and teaching;
High quality and commitment of staff, and the quality of the support and care they provide for learnersp;
Positive climate and relations between staff and learners in all sectors;
Much high quality leadership; and
A commitment to self-evaluation which is internationally admired and emulated.
The report also highlights challenges that apply across sectors, including:
Ensuring consistently high quality learning and teaching;
Raising achievement;
Meeting the needs of all learners, particularly the most vulnerable;
Reasserting the professional roles and responsibilities of teachers;
Improving leadership;
Addressing underperformance;
Working in partnership across children's services; and
Rising to the challenge of radical change.
The full report and additional factual appendices are available on the HMIE website.
Launch
of first 10k event for men in Scotland
Scotland's first national 10K
event for men was launched today at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh.
The race will take place in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on Fathers Day, 18th June 2006. It will mark the culmination of National Men's Health Week, and is expected to attract 1500 participants.
National Men's Health Week takes place each year, culminating on Fathers Day. More information can be found at http://www.mhfs.org.uk/mhfs/mens_health_week.php
SECTION
3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY begins with the Stage 1 debate of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill.
This Bill aims to achieve stronger, more inclusive and effective parental involvement in all aspects of education. It will:
Place a new statutory duty on Scottish Ministers to promote parental involvement in education at national and local level;
Place a new statutory duty on education authorities to promote parental involvement and to prepare strategies for parental involvement which will be reflected in individual school development plans;
Replace the current School Boards system with a new representative system for parents which places more emphasis on including and consulting the wider parent body in the school and gives parents more flexibility to decide on arrangements which suit them and their school;
Ensure that education authorities support parents in setting up and operating their new arrangements for representation;
Give parents a new right to request and receive advice and information on any matter relating to their own child’s education;
Ensure that education authorities establish a complaints procedure relating to their duties under the Bill; and
Provide for education authorities to modernise their appointments systems for headteachers and deputy headteachers while retaining the principle of parental involvement.
In its stage 1 report, the Education Committee recognised the need to modernise the system of parental involvement in schools via primary legislation. The majority view was that the Bill is a “genuine attempt to introduce a system which is more in tune with recent educational developments, yet sufficiently flexible to meet local needs.”
However, there were some areas in the Bill which the Committee felt could be improved. These include:
Parental involvement – the report noted the need to extend parental involvement beyond representation to ensure increased parental participation in education; and
Parent councils – ensuring that there are “adequate resources” within local authorities to allow parents to decide on the best type of set up for them and to facilitate implementation.
The report notes that the Executive is committed to bringing forward changes to the Bill to improve the involvement of parents in the appointment of senior staff. However, the consultation on these changes will not be completed by the end of the stage 1 process. As a result, the Committee report makes no recommendation on this part of the Bill and notes the intention of the Committee to approach the Parliamentary Bureau in order to ensure that the stage 2 timing allows for proper consideration of the proposals.
The day concludes with a Member's Business debate entitled Beauly to Denny Power Line: Concerns Over Increase of Childhood Leukaemia from Bruce Crawford (SNP).
THURSDAY morning begins the Stage 1 debate of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill.
The Bill will introduce an enforceable duty to ensure the welfare of animals, bringing the law on pets up to date with the law on farmed livestock; bring together and simplify over 20 pieces of existing animal welfare legislation; and enhance the Scottish Executive’s powers to respond to an outbreak of a fast-spreading animal disease.
The Bill is divided into two parts: Part 1 deals with animal health and Part 2 deals with animal welfare.
Part 1 amends the Animal Health Act 1981 and reflects developments in science; animal disease risk assessment; and the outcome of the inquiries into the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001 and the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Inquiry Report of 2000. It provides new powers for Scottish Ministers to prevent the spread of animal disease and deal with any outbreak. This includes powers to vaccinate and slaughter animals, to introduce biosecurity codes and to regulate animal gatherings such as markets and shows.
Part 2 updates, strengthens and consolidates existing animal welfare legislation, some of which dates back to 1912. It creates a more flexible statutory framework, setting out key principles on the face of the Bill while leaving detailed matters to secondary legislation.
Specifically, it:
Introduces a "duty of care" for all "protected animals". This means that people responsible for animals will need to ensure the welfare needs of the animal are met;
Raises the age at which young people can be sold animals to 16 years;
Prohibits the offering or giving of animals as prizes;
Provides a general ban on mutilations. Certain procedures will be permitted by Order. The tail docking of dogs will be prohibited with an exception for working dogs;
Provides that it is an offence for a person to perform an operation on a protected animal without due care and humanity;
Provides a specific offence in relation to animal fights;
Provides that Scottish Ministers can make regulations for the purposes of and in connection with, securing the welfare of animals for which a person is responsible, or the offspring of such animals;
Provides that Scottish Ministers may by regulations require that certain animal-related activities will require to be licensed or registered for the purposes of securing the welfare of animals;
Provides the power to make regulations for animal welfare purposes to prohibit the keeping of certain types of animals at domestic or other premises;
Provides emergency powers for the protection of animals where they are suffering or likely to suffer if the circumstances do not change – these will include the seizure of animals; and
Gives the courts power to make orders for an animal welfare offence under the Bill for the destruction or confiscation of the animal or for disqualifying the convicted person from owning or keeping animals and from other activities relating to animals.
In its stage 1 report, the Environment and Rural Development Committee endorsed the general principles of the Bill. The report, however, also calls for greater clarity in a number of key areas to ensure that animal owners and enforcement authorities are fully aware of their new responsibilities. The Committee also seeks a speedier timetable for developing regulations to ensure effective implementation.
This is followed by General Question Time and First Minister’s Question Time.
In the afternoon, following Themed Question Time, there is an Executive debate entitled Fair to All, Personal to Each - the Progress on Waiting.
This debate is timed to coincide with the publication of waiting time statistics. No details on these statistics are available at the moment, however.
"Fair to All, Personal to Each" outlined new targets for waiting times:
This debate also follows on from last week's publication by Audit Scotland of its report into waiting times. This noted that the NHS in Scotland “has made significant progress” towards meeting waiting times targets over recent years and commended the NHS for reducing the longest waits for inpatient, day case and outpatient care for people with waiting times guarantees.
The report, however, suggests that more can be done, a fact acknowledged by the Health Minister. It recommends that the NHS uses the Golden Jubilee hospital in Clydebank more efficiently and that boards should work closely with the hospital to facilitate this. It also suggested that there is potential to involve patients more in decisions about where they are treated.
The day closes with a Member's Business debate on Air Ambulance Trials in Orkney from Mr Jim Wallace (LD).
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Report to the People ] [ Interact ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ Directgov ] [ Scottish Parliament ]