Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 51, 29^th January 2001

SECTION 1

BUSINESS THIS WEEK

1.  
2. THE CHAMBER

Wednesday 31st January

•  
• Stage 1 Debate: The Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill

•  
• Sewel Motion: Outworking Bill - UK Legislation
•  
• Members Business: Borders Textile Industry (Ian Jenkins (LIB DEM))

Thursday 1^st February

•  
• Executive Debate: Working Together for Scotland - a Programme for Government
•  
• Question Time
•  
• First Minister’s Question Time
•  
• Executive Debate: Strategy for Enterprise
•  
• Members Business: Tayside Acute Services Review Consultation (Roseanna Cunningham (SNP))

1.  
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS

Likely highlights in the Committee Chambers this week are:

•  
• Equal Opportunities hears from ministers, and the Commission for Racial Equality, on the Housing Bill.
•  
• Finance takes evidence on resource accounting and budgeting, and from the minister on budget documents. This is followed by stage 2 of the Budget Bill.
•  
• Rural development questions the minister on the recent European fisheries negotiations
•  
• European has a marathon session on the Common Fisheries Policy with both fishermen’s and conservation organisations;
•  
• Health continues with the Regulation of Care Bill, with evidence from carers and consumers organisations.
•  
• Education is also on the Regulation of Care Bill, listening to children’s organisations.
•  
• Justice 1 begins stage 1 evidence on the Convention Rights Compliance Bill. They will also consider a petition from the UK Men’s Movement.
•  
• Local government has evidence on the Housing Bill from homelessness organisations.

For more details, see tomorrow’s Committee Brief.

SECTION 2

NEWS

Executive prevents privatisation of Scottish ferry services

Scottish ferry services operated by Caledonian MacBrayne will go out to tender but will remain in public ownership.

The Scottish Executive will continue to subsidise the network run by Caledonian MacBrayne to islands off Scotland's west coast and in the Firth of Clyde. It will ensure fares and levels of service were "protected."

Fears had been voiced the CalMac routes would be split up and put out to several tenders, under European Union rules governing payment of subsidies.

But Transport Minister, Sarah Boyack, has said the services would go out to tender as one package, for which CalMac could bid.

A publicly-owned company would own the ships, piers and harbours, which would be leased to the successful bidder on a commercial basis, ensuring the existing fleet would be used.

The announcement was welcomed by CalMac, which said the proposals were broadly in line with what it had suggested.

Exams boss 'should have admitted problems earlier'

The education chief at the centre of last summer's Scottish exams crisis has admitted he should have told ministers of the possible problems earlier.

Thousands of Scottish exam candidates received wrong or incomplete results in a fiasco that cost the chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Ron Tuck, his job.

A parliamentary investigation into the chaos found that SQA bosses failed to appreciate the risks of the new Higher Still exam, which involved the handling of large amounts of data.

SECTION 3

NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

In contrast to the drama of last week, proceedings in the chamber should be more sedate. Most debates surround the issues of Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

Wednesday begins with Stage 1 of the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill

This bill will introduce the new system of student finance in Scotland - the Graduate Endowment. The endowment, set initially at £2000, will be payable by most students on the successful completion of their course.

The bill also amends the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to enable ministers to make grants (and consequently bursaries) and loans to individuals who are doing higher education by distance learning. This is done by changing the definition of people eligible for grants as those undertaking a course of higher education, rather than attending a course of higher education.

Finally, the Bill amends the Local Government Finance Act to ensure students are no longer liable for council tax when sharing accommodation with non-students. This is something for which many people have been arguing for years.

There is then a short debate on a Sewel motion on UK Outworking Bill. This will regulate the sometimes unscrupulous small ads in newspapers promising wealth and riches which can be earned working from home.

Although in a reserved area, this has never been legislated on before and is therefore not mentioned in the schedules to the Scotland Act. Accordingly, a Sewel motion is needed on this occasion.

The final item of business is, as always, Members Business. Today Lib Dem Ian Jenkins discusses the Borders Textile Industry.

Thursday begins with a lengthy Executive debate on the Programme for Government - the document which sets out what the Scottish Executive has accomplished to date and its legislative priorities for the year ahead.

A wide ranging document, it covers every area of devolved policy such as justice, education, health and community care, law and order, enterprise and lifelong learning, transport and local government.

The full document is available from the Scottish Executive website.

After Question Time, there follows a short Executive debate on the Strategy for Enterprise.

At the time of writing, the strategy has not been published. Further details are therefore not currently available. It will, however, be available shortly from the Scottish Executive website and a full transcript of the debate will be on the Scottish Parliament website from 08:00 on Friday morning.

Member’s Business will discuss a motion from Roseanna Cunningham (SNP) on the Tayside Acute Services Review Consultation.

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