Scottish
Parliament e-Brief
SECTION
1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE
CHAMBER
|
Wednesday 15th March 2006 |
|
| 14:35 – 17:00 | Executive Debate: Improving the Legislative Process |
|
17:00 – 17:30 |
Members' Business: The Importance of Play (Kenneth Macintosh (LAB)) |
| 17:30 – 18:00 | Members' Business: Banffshire Partnership and Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus (Stewart Stevenson (SNP)) |
|
|
|
|
Thursday 16th March 2006 |
|
| 09:15 – 10:00 | Ministerial Statement: Major Public Transport Projects Update |
|
10:00 – 10:20 |
Appointment of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner |
| 10:20 – 11:40 | Independents' Group Debate: Make Poverty History |
|
11:40 – 12:00 |
|
|
12:00 – 12:30 |
First Minister's Question Time |
| 14:15 – 14:55 |
*
Finance and Communities; |
|
14:55 – 15:55 |
Justice 1 Committee Debate: European Commission Green Papers on Applicable Law in Divorce and Succession and Wills |
| 15:55 – 17:00 |
European and External Relations Committee Debate: 4th Report 2005, An Inquiry into the Scottish Executive's Fresh Talent Initiative Examining the Problems It Aims to Address, Its Operation, Challenges and Prospects |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Member's Business: Commonwealth Day 2006 (Dr Sylvia Jackson (LAB)) |
In Committee
| Tuesday 14th March 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Finance |
The Committee will consider its approach to the
Financial Memorandum for the Legal Profession and Legal Aid
(Scotland) Bill. |
| PM | Enterprise
and Culture |
The National Union of Students (Scotland) give
evidence on the Student Fees (Specification) (Scotland) Order 2006.
The Committee then takes Stage 1 evidence on Part 2 of the Bankruptcy
and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Bill (regarding Floating Charges)
from the Law Society of Scotland, Registers of Scotland, the Committee
of Scottish Clearing Bankers and Money Advice Scotland and Part 3
(Enforcement) from the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff
Officers, Money Advice Scotland and Stirling Park Ltd. |
| European
and External Relations |
The Committee takes evidence on a Scottish Executive
project entitled "Building a Bridge between Europe and its
Citizens" from Executive officials. Dennis Canavan (IND)
and Jim Wallace (LD) will then update the Committee on two
reporter-led inquiries into possible co-operation between Scotland and
Ireland; and the transposition and implementation of European
Directives in Scotland. |
|
| Justice
2 |
Evidence on proposed Scottish Executive amendments to
the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill
in relation to regulating orders comes from Deputy Justice Minister,
Hugh Henry and officials. |
|
| Local
Government and Transport |
The Association of Town Centre Management and the
Federation of Small Businesses give Stage 1 evidence on the Planning
etc. (Scotland) Bill. |
|
| Wednesday 15th March 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Justice 1 |
The Committee will consider correspondence received from the Minister for Justice regarding the Scottish Criminal Record Office. |
SECTION 2 - NEWS
Pedometer
pilot encourages small steps approach
A primary care pedometer
scheme has demonstrated that preventing obesity and improving health can be
achieved by small changes in lifestyle.
The pilot - co-ordinated by voluntary organisation Paths to Health - is aimed at increasing walking levels in "hard to reach" groups including working age men and people from deprived communities. It has been running in the NHS Board areas of Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and Arran, and Lothian.
At the start of National Obesity Awareness Week, Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald commended the work and announced continued funding support for Paths to Health of £530,000 for 2006-07.
If every adult who is currently inactive were to do 30 minutes of brisk walking a day, they would reduce their risk of heart disease by half, stroke by a third and diabetes by a third. And they could reduce their body weight by walking off as much as one stone a year.
Commonwealth
Games
Scotland's case for hosting the
2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was presented to Games executives and
delegates in Australia at the weekend.
First Minister, Jack McConnell, in Melbourne to support the Scottish team at the 2006 Games which begin on Wednesday, took part in a video display showcasing Glasgow and its plans, helped by Steven Purcell, leader of the Glasgow City Council, and Lorna Martin, Chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland.
Glasgow is competing against Abuja, Nigeria, and Halifax, Canada, for the 2014 Games. The final decision on who wins will be taken in November 2007.
SECTION
3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY begins with an Executive debate on Improving the Legislative Process.
Seven years into the Scottish Parliament, its legislative process has had time to bed in and some refinements have been made. These include changes to Question Time, improvements to the Sewel convention and reviews of the procedures which govern Members' and Private Bills.
The purpose of this debate is to ascertain whether further changes are required in relation to the legislative function of the Parliament to ensure it passes effective, good quality legislation.
In recent months, Members have raised issues regarding timescales of the passage of Bills, the amount of time allocated to Committees to scrutinise legislation and the question of what action can be taken to revisit legislation once a Bill is passed.The Procedures Committee reported on the parliamentary stages of Bills in November 2004. It recommended:
That sufficient time is allowed for the Stage 1 inquiry and for Lead Committees to consult with other relevant Committees before a timetable is agreed. It was also recommended that there should be a minimum of a week between publication of the Stage 1 Report and the Stage 1 debate.
That the intervals between Stages 1 and 2 and Stages 2 and 3 are increased to allow issues raised at Stage 1 to be properly considered and taken forward if appropriate.
More time overall to be allowed for Stage 3 proceedings, where this is necessary to allow all the issues raised to be properly debated.
The day concludes with two Member's Business debates. The first is the debate which was postponed due to the closure of the Holyrood Chamber and is on The Importance of Play (Kenneth Macintosh (LAB)). The second is on Banffshire Partnership and Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus from Stewart Stevenson (SNP).
THURSDAY morning begins with a Ministerial Statement on Major Public Transport Projects Update.
The Scottish Executive has a £3 billion capital investment programme for transport infrastructure. This is overseen by the new Executive Agency, Transport Scotland, which assumed its responsibilities at the start of the year.
Examples of these major capital projects include the upgrade of Waverley station, the Glasgow and Edinburgh airport rail links and the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route.
However, as the precise content of any Ministerial Statement must be announced first to Parliament, no further details are available at the moment.
This is followed by a motion on the Appointment of the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
The Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is an independent investigator of complaints that Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have broken their Code of Conduct.
This motion asks the parliament reappoint the current Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Dr Jim Dyer, whose present three-year term in office will end on 31st March 2006.
Last month, the Presiding Officer, members of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and an independent assessor sat on a reappointment board which interviewed Dr Dyer. The board took the decision that the Commissioner was suitable for reappointment and has recommended that Parliament agree Dr Dyer should continue in his post for a further three-year term.
The Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Act 2002 provides that the Commissioner shall be appointed by the SPCB with the agreement of the Parliament for a period of up to five years and may be reappointed once. The duration of the appointment, if agreed by Parliament would see Dr Dyer continue in post until March 2009, which will be close to the middle of the next four year parliamentary term.
There is then a debate from the Independents' Group entitled Make Poverty History.
Unusually for opposition debates, there is no need to await a motion. This will be a "subject debate", meaning that speakers can approach the issue from whichever angle they please. There will be no motion to debate or vote on.
This is followed by General Question Time and First Minister’s Question Time.
In the afternoon, following Themed Question Time, there is a Justice 1 Committee debate on European Commission Green Papers on Applicable Law in Divorce and Succession and Wills.
This relates to two EU consultation proposals on dealing with international divorces and successions when someone dies and has property in more than one European country. The UK can opt-in selectively to Justice and Home Affairs legislative measures under Title IV of the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty Protocol No 4).
The Committee's response to the European Commission, however, dismissed the plans - which could have seen Scottish courts forced to apply foreign law to divorce cases and require people to register a will - as "fundamentally flawed and unnecessary".
The Committee concluded that the proposals were not in the best interests of Scotland, stating that, "the Committee recommends that the Scottish Executive strongly urge the UK Government not to opt in to any draft instruments which emerge following the conclusion of these consultation processes."
Committee Convener, Pauline McNeill (LAB), said that the "European Commission has not made the case for legislation at the EU level in these areas of family law. The evidence we received from Scottish stakeholders was that there was no significant problem either with Scots law or the way our system deals with international divorces or successions. These proposals would only increase the legal complexity and costs for ordinary people caught up in these cases."
The Committee response also highlights evidence from the Scottish Legal Aid Board that, if international divorce cases were transferred from our sheriff courts to the Court of Session (as proposed), there would be a three-fold increase in the average costs incurred. (Sheriff Court average cost = £1827; Court of Session average case cost = £6649)
In response to the proposal that there should be a national register of wills maintained in each EU Member State, the Convener said that "the Scottish system of allowing informal wills works well as ordinary people do not need to pay for the services of a lawyer in order to make their wishes known. The proposal to create national registers of wills could threaten the validity of perfectly clear personal wills just because they had not been officially registered."
There is then a European and External Relations Committee debate on its 4th Report 2005, An Inquiry into the Scottish Executive's Fresh Talent Initiative Examining the Problems It Aims to Address, Its Operation, Challenges and Prospects.
The aim of the Fresh Talent Initiative, launched by the Scottish Executive in February 2004, is to attract talented and entrepreneurial migrants to Scotland to offset the projected decline in Scotland’s population. The Committee's report, published on 17th November last year, urges the Scottish Executive to consider issues which could help asylum seekers to gain work and integrate into communities as part of its Fresh Talent Initiative. The Committee also recommended that, as well as attracting external talent, the Executive should aim to mobilise Scotland’s existing talent pool to the fullest extent, paying particular attention to the estimated 688,000 people in Scotland who are currently economically inactive.
Key findings of the inquiry include:
The day closes with a Member's Business debate on Commonwealth Day 2006 from Dr Sylvia Jackson (LAB).
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