Scottish
Parliament e-Brief
SECTION
1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE
CHAMBER
|
Wednesday 3rd May 2006 |
|
| 14:35 – 17:00 | Stage 1 Debate: Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Member's Business: Funding the Voluntary Sector (Donald Gorrie (LD)) |
|
|
|
|
Thursday 4th May 2006 |
|
| 09:15 – 10:30 | Scottish Green Party Debate: Replacement of Trident |
| 10:30 - 11:40 | Scottish Green Party Debate: Nuclear Power |
|
11:40 – 12:00 |
|
|
12:00 – 12:30 |
|
| 14:15 – 14:55 |
* Justice and Law Officers; * Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning |
|
14:55 – 17:00 |
Stage 1 Debate: Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Bill |
| 17:00 – 17:30 | Member's Business: Strathaven Academy (Margaret Mitchell (CON)) |
In Committee
| Tuesday 2nd May 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Equal
Opportunities |
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and
Parliament staff give evidence on the Scottish Parliament's Equality
Framework. This is followed by more evidence on the disability
inquiry, this week from transport bodies. |
| PM | Enterprise
and Culture |
Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise
and lifelong Learning, Nicol Stephen, and officials give evidence on
Scottish Enterprise's budget and restructuring plans. Deputy
Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Allan Wilson, and
officials then give evidence on the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc.
(Scotland) Bill. |
| Justice
2 |
The Law Society of Scotland, Faculty
of Advocates, Scottish Law Agents Society and Scottish Legal Action
Group all give evidence on the Legal Profession and Legal
Aid (Scotland) Bill. |
|
| Wednesday 3rd May 2006 | ||
|
AM |
Environment
and Rural Development |
4 panels of witnesses give Stage 1 evidence on the Crofting
Reform etc. Bill. |
| Justice
1 |
Sheriff Principal John McInnes, formerly the
Chairman of the Summary Justice Review Committee; Chief
Constable David Strang; officers from Strathclyde Police's Criminal
Justice Office; and the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff
Officers all give evidence on the Criminal Proceedings etc.
(Reform) (Scotland) Bill. |
|
| Public Petitions |
The Committee will consider new petitions covering topics including ship-to-ship oil transfers; the provision of an audio recording of civil court proceedings to those parties with special needs such as dyslexia; and sites for new schools. It will also return to the petitions on the review of services for people with learning disabilities, "The Same as You?"; and minimum safety standards for school buses. |
|
SECTION 2 - NEWS
Clampdown
on underage alcohol sales
A 12 month alcohol test purchasing pilot involving under-18s is to begin this
summer.
The pilot - to be run by Fife police - will involve 16-17 year olds attempting to buy alcohol at the 900 licensed premises across the region to test whether they are upholding the law. It aims to trial test purchasing arrangements so that common procedures can be developed for use by other Scottish forces by 2009.
The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 allows for the test purchasing of alcohol, providing the primacy of the welfare of children and young people is addressed. Before the relevant provisions of the Act are generally commenced, it was agreed that a pilot project would be undertaken to allow common procedures and operating protocols to be developed and so ensure that test purchasing could be carried out safely, fairly and effectively.
The safeguards to protect the young people authorised by the Chief Constable to carry out the test purchases include: direct supervision by police officers at all times; specific training for officers involved in such operations; a model agreement with the young person; and written parental consent. All the young people involved will look their age and will be required to tell the truth if asked any questions about their age.
Should the licensee and/or the employee fail the test by supplying alcohol to the test purchaser, the police officers will charge them with the relevant offence(s) and submit a police report for the attention of the Procurator Fiscal and Local Licensing Board.
Bird
restrictions lifted
All restrictions imposed following the finding of the highly pathogenic H5N1
virus in a dead swan at Cellardyke in Fife have been lifted.
The 10km Wild Bird Surveillance Zone which required the housing of poultry and a ban on live bird movements was lifted yesterday. The wider Wild Bird Risk Area established as a precautionary measure was lifted at the same time.
The Scottish Executive says that routine surveillance will continue across Britain and members of the public should continue to report sightings of dead birds to the helpline number - 08459 335577.
Poultry keepers are advised they should continue to maintain high levels of biosecurity.
SECTION
3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY begins with the Stage 1 debate of the Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill.
The Bill proposes to establish a Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights (SCHR) which will work closely - guided by a memorandum of understanding - with the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), which is being established at Westminster.
An SCHR would be independent - accountable to the Scottish Parliament and not to the Executive. Its general function would be to promote awareness and understanding of, and respect for, human rights. An SCHR would, therefore, be a promotional office, rather than one of enforcement. It would have no power to investigate individual complaints, although such complaints may prompt it to conduct an inquiry into a particular issue. Neither would it be able to decide whether an individual’s human rights have been breached. This will continue to be decided by the courts. (It is worth noting, incidentally, that there have been only three legal challenges to legislation created by the Scottish Parliament based on human rights . None of these has been successful.)
Consideration of this Bill has been controversial, however. The Justice 1 Committee reached no overall conclusion in its report on whether or not to recommend that Parliament pass the general principles of the Bill.
It notes the number of bodies promoting and protecting the human rights of specific groups or the public at large. However, it also accepts that the establishment of the GB commission will mean that there will be a narrow gap on devolved issues which has to be filled.There was, though, no overall majority on how this gap should be filled.
The report could only present three options:Extend the remit of a pre-existing statutory body;
Make no recommendation to the Parliament until further work has been done to see how option 1 could work in practice; or
Support the general principles, but look for significant amendments at Stage 2.
Concerns were also raised by the Finance Committee in its report on the Financial Memorandum. These focussed on 2 key issues:
The financial accountability of the commissioner; and
The costings in respect of the commissioner.
Since the Justice 1 Committee's report was published, there has been much discussion between Committee members and the lead Minister on how the Bill can be improved.
Committee members agree that there is a need for someone or something to promote human rights in Scotland, but remain concerned about clashes and overlaps, and the potential for the role and the budget to grow. Discussions on these issues have led to the decision that a commission, rather than a commissioner, will be identified.The day concludes with a Member's Business debate entitled Funding the Voluntary Sector from Donald Gorrie (LD).
THURSDAY morning begins with two Green Party debates on the Replacement of Trident and Nuclear Power.
As is usual with opposition debates, no motions have yet been tabled. However 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 the Stage 1 debate of the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Bill.
As the name suggests, the provisions in the Bill fall under two headings - i) electoral administration and ii) registration services.
As regards the former, the Bill aims to modernise elections and improve the security of absent voting, make the administration of elections more efficient and make elections and the process of voting more accessible to voters. The Bill proposes to:
Introduce performance standards for returning officers to encourage best practice in the delivery of electoral services;
Introduce provisions governing the inspection and supply of local government election documents;
Strengthen the range of offences in order to provide stronger deterrents to electoral fraud, for example creating a new offence of providing false information for the purposes of an application to vote by post, by proxy or by post as a proxy at local government elections in Scotland. Also, applying for a postal or proxy vote, with the intention of stealing another person’s vote or gaining a vote to which the applicant is not entitled, will be both a corrupt practice and a criminal offence;
Provide that intended, but unsuccessful, attempts to prevent electors from voting freely may amount to the corrupt practice of undue influence;
Change the details to be included on election material, requiring these to include the names and address of the printer of the material, promoter of the material and the person on behalf of whom the material is published; and
Give returning officers and other authorised persons the discretion to make available, in graphical format, Braille and languages other than English and Welsh, documents which are given to voters or publicly displayed for the purposes of an election.
On the latter, changes to registration services in the legislation include:
Allowing the registration of births and deaths anywhere in Scotland (currently restricted to the local registration office);
Adjusting registration boundaries and opening times to make them more convenient for customers;
Allowing electronic notification of registered events to government departments and local authorities - and, at the specific request of those registering the events, to other bodies;
Opening up opportunities for local authorities to provide family history search centres;
Allowing people with a Scottish connection to have events occurring abroad recorded in a book in Scotland held by the Registrar General;
Allowing for e-registration to be available once security requirements can be satisfied;
Allowing public information held by the General Register Office for Scotland to be used to assist government and business in the delivery of their services; and
Establishing the National Infrastructure for the Citizen’s Account.
The day closes with a Member's Business debate on Strathaven Academy from Margaret Mitchell (CON).
[ HOME ] [ News ] [ Report to the People ] [ Interact ] [ Links ] [ E-Mail ]
[ Copyright ] [ Directgov ] [ Scottish Parliament ]