Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 295, 5th June 2006

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

In Committee

SECTION 2 - NEWS

Sentencing Commission
The Sentencing Commission for Scotland has today published its report on the basis on which fines are determined.

The Commission's Chairman, the Rt Hon Lord Macfadyen, said the body's report contained the following key recommendations:

• That the necessary prerequisite for changing the system governing the imposition of fines to one involving unit or day fines as seen on the Continent - namely a simple reliable and cost-effective means to gather information on offenders' income - was not currently available;

• That offenders who can demonstrate, by way of verified information, that their total disposable income is extremely low or the imposition of a fine would bring it to an extremely low level should not be fined and should have an alternative punishment imposed, for example, a Supervised Attendance Order or a Community Reparation Order;

• That offenders who default on a fine up to £5,000 should not be imprisoned for default but should have a Supervised Attendance Order imposed; and

• That the penalty for breach of a Supervised Attendance Order should be increased so that up to 3 months' imprisonment may be imposed.

Lord Macfadyen said:

"The fine is the most frequently used penalty in our criminal courts, though its use has declined in recent times as the number of sanctions for criminal behaviour has increased.

"Despite what is reported from time to time the very great majority of fines are paid in full.  Sometimes, the effort to recover them is arguably disproportionate to the value of the fine but that, of course, is only part of the equation.

"A more significant part, in our view, is that the execution of any sanction imposed by the courts in response to criminality must be enforced so as to maintain proper respect for the law. Offenders cannot be allowed simply to flout the law."

The Commission is an independent, judicially-led body which was set up by the Executive under its policy statement "A Partnership for a Better Scotland".

Full Story

World Environment Day
To mark World Environment Day, all Scots are being urged to make as many of the promises listed below as they can:

1. I promise to shower instead of bath;

2. I promise to put a water saving device in my toilet cistern;

3. I promise to turn the tap off when I brush my teeth;

4. I promise to use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones;

5. I promise to re-use bags when I go shopping;

6. I promise to dry my washing on the line - not in the tumble dryer;

7. I promise to boil only the water I need, rather than filling the kettle every time;

8. I promise to share my car journeys to work with a colleague, cycle or replace those car journeys with public transport at least once a week;

9. I promise to use a climate payback scheme to reduce the impact of any air travel I take; and

10. I promise to organise or volunteer for an environmental project in my local community.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY begins with a Finance Committee debate on its report, Cross-cutting Expenditure Review of Deprivation.

Published on 13th April, the report of Committee's wide-ranging review of spending on deprivation funding calls for the establishment of a single fund to combat deprivation, suggesting that it would allow the wider problem of deprivation to be tackled more effectively and reduce bureaucracy.

The proposed fund would merge existing funding streams and allow the introduction of supplementary funding, ensuring best value.  Implementation of the fund requires that national performance indicators should be introduced alongside outcome agreements reached by the Community Planning Partnerships for each local authority area.  This would mean that the success of local and national efforts to overcome deprivation can be monitored systematically.

The Committee considered that mainstream budgets in local government and health are not sufficiently focused on tackling deprivation.  The report therefore recommends that the local government funding formula should be adjusted to take full account of deprivation, which would benefit authorities suffering population loss and with heavy concentrations of multiple deprivation.

The Committee also wants to see much greater accountability locally and nationally for how deprivation resources are used and improved co-ordination between Community Planning Partnerships and the Executive.

The report makes a number of further recommendations to target resources more effectively on the people and areas where it is most needed:

• Regeneration Outcome Agreements (ROAs) should be approved and monitored by the Executive rather than Communities Scotland.  The Committee believes at present there is a fundamental conflict in the roles of Communities Scotland as it is simultaneously a strategic partner, project sponsor and adjudicator.

• Community Planning Partnerships (which involve local authorities, health boards, enterprise networks etc.) should develop partnership outcome agreements which will include a description of the money to be targeted on deprivation and what will be done with the money. These will be much wider than the current agreements in place to deal with deprivation.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Mental Health and Deaf and Deafblind People from Adam Ingram (SNP).

THURSDAY morning begins with a Subordinate Legislation Committee debate on its Inquiry into the Regulatory Framework in Scotland (i.e. the system of passing secondary, or subordinate, legislation - such as SSIs) .

Published on 23rd May, the draft report says that a new streamlined system to improve scrutiny and be fit for purpose should replace the traditional means by which the Scottish Parliament scrutinises the rules and regulations made under Acts of Parliament.  The unusual step of publishing a draft report was taken to allow the Committee to receive feedback before it decides on a final report to Parliament.

The draft report includes a number of recommendations including:

• The introduction of a Statutory Instruments Bill, to replace the Transitional Order which currently sets out secondary legislation procedures;

• A simplified procedure for the scrutiny of subordinate legislation which is called the Scottish Statutory Instrument Procedure (SSIP);

• Improved timescales for scrutiny by Parliamentary Committees;

• All statutory instruments to be laid in draft, to allow changes to be made to improve quality where necessary; and

• Improved co-ordination and planning of secondary legislation by the Executive.

The Committee also continues to call for the use of plain English where possible to make Regulations etc. easy to understand.

Then, Members have another go at Stage 3 of the Interests of Members of the Scottish Parliament Bill.

See e-Brief 289 for more information.

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

The day closes with a Member's Business entitled Muscular Dystrophy "My Life" Campaign from Cathy Craigie (LAB).

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