Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 38, 9th October 2000
SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
THE CHAMBER
As the parliament begins its autumn recess this week, there will be no business in the chamber.
COMMITTEE BUSINESS
The Education, Culture & Sport Committee will meet to continue its inquiry into the SQA. The committee will take evidence from:
SECTION 2 - NEWS
SQA UPDATE
Both committee inquiries (Education, Culture & Sport and Enterprise & Lifelong Learning) have taken substantial evidence. Last week Enterprise took evidence from Sam Galbraith and Henry McLeish, while Education concentrated on the teaching unions. Key political issues have arisen at this stage in both committees:
Relationship Between SQA and the Scottish Executive.
Mike Russell (SNP) has claimed that evidence from the Education Department calls into question Sam Galbraith’s statement to Parliament that he had no power to intervene in the SQA. He said: "From the evidence before us, we can see a detailed list of instructions from the Executive to the SQA. In effect, by 17th July, Mr Galbraith’s department was running the organisation." However, in giving evidence, John Elvidge (head of the Education Department), had made clear the extent of Executive intervention, stating: "I do not dispute that we were intervening ... but I do not think that constitutes running the SQA."
Disclosure of Advice to Ministers.
Consultants Deloitte Touche, who are conducting the Executive’s inquiry into the SQA, are governed by the civil service code of conduct, stating that advice given to ministers by civil servants must remain confidential. This has led Fergus Ewing (SNP) and others to suggest that the Deloitte Touche inquiry would not reveal the true situation within the Executive.
On Wednesday, the Enterprise & Lifelong Learning Committee agreed that Alex Neil (SNP) (as Committee Convenor) and Mary Mulligan (LAB) (as Education Committee convenor) would meet with Sam Galbraith to discuss ways in which the confidential advice given to ministers could be used to inform the Committee inquiries, but not infringe civil service codes. This liaison meeting took place on Thursday lunchtime.
This Week
As outlined above, the Education Committee is meeting today to take evidence from, among others, Bill Morton, interim Chief Executive of SQA. In a highly critical written submission on the SQA Mr Morton draws the following conclusions:
"Although poor data or information management lies at the heart of the problems of earlier this year, there were additional contributory factors."
The report goes on to identify management structures as "cumbersome" with "a lack of coherence, duplication of effort and a degree of rivalry between units." Staff were "overstretched", with evidence of bullying, while staff concerns were not effectively responded to.
TOBACCO ADVERTISING BAN TO GO AHEAD - DEWAR
First Minister Donald Dewar says tobacco advertising will be outlawed in Scotland despite a ruling against a European Union advertising ban.
He told a conference of the World Medical Association in Edinburgh that smoking caused a "particular problem" in Scotland, where it claimed 13,000 lives a year - the equivalent death toll to an air crash every week on the Edinburgh to London shuttle route.
On Thursday, the European Court of Justice overturned an EU directive banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship from 2001, saying the executive European Commission had no power to introduce the law.
The tobacco industry has welcomed the ruling, but Britain has voted to introduce a UK law if a European ban proves impossible.
The European Court annulled the ban on a technicality, as the directive had been introduced under EU single market legislation.
Mr Dewar said: "Let there be no doubt, tobacco advertising will be banned in Scotland. It is not a question of if - it is a matter of when."
He went on: "I know that we will encounter opposition on the way. That is to be expected, but it will not deter us.
"It is wrong that vast amounts of money are being spent promoting a product that has such a damaging effect on public health. We will not allow it to continue."
The First Minister said he had committed the Scottish Executive to outlawing tobacco advertising in its programme for government. "I stand by that commitment 100%. If this requires UK legislation, then so be it."
Mr Dewar said smoking was a world-wide problem, but a particular problem in Scotland where 33,500 people were admitted to hospital with smoking-related disease. "One-third of women who die in Scotland between the ages of 35 to 69 die from smoking. Indeed, more women now die from lung cancer than breast cancer," he said.
SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
Parliament returns on Monday 23rd October
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