Scottish
Parliament e-Brief
SECTION
1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE
CHAMBER
|
Wednesday 8th March 2006 |
|
| 14:35 – 17:00 | Executive Debate: International Women’s Day |
|
17:00 – 17:30 |
Member’s Business: 21st Anniversary of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Industry (Maureen Macmillan (LAB)) |
|
|
|
|
Thursday 9th March 2006 |
|
| 09:15 - 10:15 | Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Energy Policy |
|
10:15 – 11:40 |
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Debate: Policies on Drug Abuse |
|
11:40 – 12:00 |
|
|
12:00 – 12:30 |
First Minister's Question Time |
| 14:15 – 14:55 |
*
Justice and Law Officers; |
|
14:55 – 17:00 |
Executive Debate: Agriculture Strategy |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Member's Business: Ship-to-Ship Oil Transfer (Robin Harper (GRN)) |
In Committee
| Tuesday 7th March 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Equal
Opportunities |
Deputy Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Minister,
Allan Wilson, gives evidence to the disability inquiry. |
| Finance
|
Colin Mair, Chief Executive of the Improvement
Service for Local Government and Dr Mark McAteer, its Senior
Development Manager, give evidence on the Scottish Executive’s
Efficient Government initiative. |
|
| PM | Health |
The Committee meets
in Dundee to take evidence for its care inquiry from the Social Work
Conveners and Directors of Angus and Dundee City Councils.
Senior figures from the Care Commission also give evidence. |
| Enterprise
and Culture |
Practitioners,
Scottish Enterprise and the Deputy Enterprise Minister give Stage 1
evidence on the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Bill. |
|
| Justice
2 |
Deputy Justice
Minister, Hugh Henry, gives evidence on proposed Scottish Executive
amendments to the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice
(Scotland) Bill in relation to the management of sex offenders. |
|
| Local
Government and Transport |
Members travel to
Motherwell to take evidence for the freight transport inquiry from
industry representatives and hauliers themselves. |
|
| Wednesday 8th March 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Communities |
A range of witnesses
give Stage 1 evidence on the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill. |
| Education |
The Committee will
agree a timetable and order of consideration for Stage 2 of the Scottish
Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill. |
|
| Environment
and Rural Development |
3 panels of witnesses, including Deputy Environment
and Rural Development Minister, Rhona Brankin and the Forestry
Commission, give evidence for the inquiry into developments in the
biomass industry. |
|
| Public Petitions |
New petitions cover topics including public consultation when changes are proposed to public health services; the public health implications of oil depots in residential areas; ensuring that a full written explanation is provided to the alleged victim of a crime when a Procurator Fiscal does not consider it in the public interest to proceed to a criminal prosecution; and severance payment for councillors. The Committee also returns to the petitions on the future prospects for the Scottish haulage industry; and the provision of rail services between Inverness, Thurso and Wick. |
|
SECTION 2 - NEWS
NHS
boards told to clean up their act
Scotland's Chief Medical Officer
today spelled out immediate improvements NHS Boards must make after potential
shortcomings were confirmed in the disinfection of crucial medical
instruments.
Following an initial appraisal of standards, Dr Harry Burns recently wrote to Health Boards demanding a review of systems for cleaning endoscopes. Today the full results of a Scotland-wide survey are published.
The review of decontamination was commissioned following a decontamination failure incident in Northern Ireland in 2004. At that time, hazard warning notices were issued in all four UK administrations. The review forms part of a wider strategy to upgrade medical devices decontamination facilities and practice across Scotland. The expert group which advises the Executive on this is the Sterile Services Provision Review Group (the 'Glennie Group').
The Executive has invested over £20 million in upgrading central sterilisation units for surgical instruments since 2001.
New
Bill on legal reforms
The Legal Profession and
Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill has been published.
Measures in the Bill include:
Enabling a wider range of legal service suppliers to apply for the approval of Scottish Ministers and the Lord President to provide legal representation in court. Currently only solicitors, advocates and solicitor-advocates can provide these services;
Putting service users at the heart of the complaints handling service with the creation of a Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, independent of the legal profession. The Commission, with a non-lawyer majority, will receive all complaints against legal practitioners which it has not been possible to resolve at source;
Transferring the power to grant legal aid in solemn cases from the courts to the Scottish Legal Aid Board, who already deal with legal aid in summary cases; and
Allowing the Scottish Legal Aid Board to fund advisors with appropriate skills and expertise, not just solicitors.
The Bill stems from two separate strands of policy development:
A programme of improving the handling of complaints against lawyers; and
A programme to improve the delivery of legal assistance
In 2004-05 expenditure on legal aid was £152.4 million. There are over 400,000 applications for Legal Aid received by Scottish Legal Aid Board every year.
SECTION
3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY begins with an Executive debate on International Women’s Day.
International Women's Day dates back to 8th March 1857, when hundreds of women workers in New York City staged a strike against low pay. In 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating 8th March as International Women's Day, hence the timing of this debate.
The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on the 21st Anniversary of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Industry from Maureen Macmillan (LAB).
THURSDAY morning begins with two debates from the Conservative Party on Energy Policy and Policies on Drug Abuse.
As is normal with opposition debates, their precise focus is not yet known as the motions have not been published.
It is safe to assume, however, that the former will feature the ongoing debate around how future energy needs will be met and the current issues around new nuclear power stations, renewables and gas supplies.
The
motions will, as always, be published in the Business
Bulletin in due course and full transcripts of both debates will be
available from the Official
Report on Friday.
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 on the Agriculture Strategy.
The Scottish Executive published A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture in June 2001. The Strategy identified 54 action points designed to help achieve its stated vision of "a prosperous farming industry, one of Scotland's success stories, which benefits all the people of Scotland".
The Agriculture Strategy Implementation Group (ASIG) was then established to ensure progress on the various action points contained in the Strategy. In March 2005, a successor group to ASIG, the Agriculture Strategy Group (ASG), was established to review and update the 2001 Strategy.
A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture - Next Steps has now been published. The first goal of the strategy is to help primary producers work better and more closely with food processors, retailers and the food service sector to identify, inform and meet market demand. One key market is Food Tourism, which provides opportunities for farmers to produce and sell food locally in Scotland. Increasing the quality of food is also a key strand of the new Tourism Strategy.
Related actions to improve market returns include:
Promotion of collaborative supply chains to encourage innovation, competitiveness and market responsiveness;
Provision of better market information, identifying market opportunities that build on our strengths;
Developing messages for consumers about benefits of buying Scottish produce; and
Examining consumer preferences in terms of clarity of labelling to identify scope for further improvement.
The day closes with a Member's Business debate on Ship-to-Ship Oil Transfer from Robin Harper (GRN).
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