Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 56, 5^th March 2001

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

1. THE CHAMBER

Wednesday 7^th March 2001

14:30 Stage 1 Debate: Regulation of Care (Scotland) Bill

17:00 Members' Business: Strategy to tackle Sexual Abuse (Marilyn Livingstone (LAB))

Thursday 8^th March 2001

09:30 Conservative Debate: Criminal Justice

11:00 Conservative Debate: Crisis in the Countryside

14:30 Question Time

15.10 First Minister's Question Time

15:30 Sewel Motion: International Development Bill

16:00 Stage 3 Debate on Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill

17:00 Members' Business: Less Favoured Areas (Alex Fergusson (CON))

2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS

The highlights in the Committee Chambers this week are:

• The Rural development Committee is likely to dominate this week as it continues with the Protection of Wild Mammals Bill and considers the implications of the Cod Recovery Plan.
• Social Justice meets in private to discuss their stage 1 report on the Housing Bill.
• Finance takes evidence from the Executive on the Housing Bill and Regulation of Care Bill.
• Equal Opportunities resumes discussion of its stage 1 report on the Housing Bill, and the Budget process 2002/03.
• Subordinate Legislation considers orders related to foot and mouth disease
• Education takes evidence from Sam Galbraith on the Hampden Inquiry and the UK Culture and Recreation Bill. Members also consider a petition on school meals.

For more details, see tomorrow’s Committee Brief.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION - OPENING UP GOVERNMENT

Justice Minister, Jim Wallace has announced proposals for the first ever legally enforceable right of access to information held by Scottish public authorities, backed up by a fully independent Commissioner, appointed by Parliament, with the legal authority to require disclosure.

Published last week for consultation, the Scottish Executive's draft Freedom of Information Bill sets out:

• A legal right of access for all to information held by a broad range of Scottish public authorities including the Scottish Executive and its agencies, local authorities, the NHS in Scotland, educational institutions, and the police.
• A fully independent Scottish Information Commissioner with strong powers to promote and enforce the legislation. The Commissioner would be appointed by The Queen, on the Scottish Parliament's recommendation, independent of the Scottish Executive.
• The Commissioner would monitor the overall operation of the legislation ensuring that as much information as possible is available to the public. Where he or she considers that information should be disclosed there would be legal power to order disclosure.
• A limited set of exemptions, providing proper safeguards against the disclosure of sensitive information. In most cases, authorities seeking to withhold information would need to show that there would be "substantial prejudice" if the information was released, and be required to consider the public interest in disclosure.

The consultation period will run until May 25^th this year.

Full Story

LIDDELL AND ALEXANDER ANNOUNCE £90 MILLION FUNDING PACKAGE FOR SCOTTISH SCIENCE

Scottish Entrprise Minister, Wendy Alexander and Secretary of State for Scotland, Helen Liddell have unveiled a multi-million pound investment fund to help Scottish scientists develop world-beating new drugs and technologies.

The new £90 million Scottish Science Research Investment Fund will support work on new drugs to treat killer diseases and the development of advanced technologies.

Investing in world-class research facilities is vital if Scotland is to be a leader in the new global economy and to create the industrial jobs of tomorrow, they said.

The Scottish Science Research Investment Fund combines funding from the UK Science Budget and the Scottish Executive. The UK Government and Scottish Executive are each contributing £45 million. The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) will distribute the funding.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

The first item on the agenda on WEDNESDAY is Stage 1 of the Regulation of Care Bill.

The bill will set up two bodies: the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care to regulate services and the Scottish Social Services Council to regulate the workforce.

With a wide ranging remit, the Commission will regulate care homes for adults and children, home care, day care, early education and childcare (including child minders), housing support services, nurse agencies, adoption and fostering services and independent healthcare. It will also establish staff registers and publish codes of conduct and practice for the social services workforce.

As fans of the Committee News will be aware, various interest groups have already given evidence on this bill in Committee. It is likely that some of the issues raised will be covered in the debate.

This is followed at 5pm by a Member's Business motion on the Strategy to tackle Sexual Abuse from Marilyn Livingstone (LAB).

THURSDAY is an opposition day and begins with two debates from the Conservatives: one on Criminal Justice and another on the Crisis in the Countryside.

While, at the time of writing, neither motion has been published, it is probable that the Criminal Justice debate will cover issues such as the ECHR. The current foot and mouth outbreak will undoubtedly feature prominently in the Countryside debate.

Both motions will be published in due course in the Business Bulletin.

There are a number of short, but important, pieces of business to be taken after Question Time.

There is a short Sewel motion debate on the International Development Bill - a piece of UK legislation which establishes in law the reduction of poverty as the central aim of the UK international development assistance.

It deals almost entirely with reserved matters. However, as it will impact on 4 minor provisions in Scots' law, Holyrood must formally allow Westminster to legislate in these respects.

This is followed by the final stage of the Leasehold Casualties (Scotland) Bill. As was set out in e-Brief 48 when this Bill was debated at Stage 1 (on Wednesday 10^th January), this is a fairly straightforward bill which will abolish a particular kind of clause in Scottish leases of very long duration. Such clauses allow for additional payments of rent at given intervals. It will thereby get rid of situations where a landlord can resurrect forgotten clauses and demand considerable sums of money from tenants. The bill will also makes void provisions allowing repossession of a property where such a lease provision is broken; and allows for the payment of compensation to landlords.

Since then, Stage 2 has been completed in the Justice 1 Committee. There were a small number of technical amendments from the Executive, and the process was swift and uncontroversial.

The week's business in the chamber closes with a Member's Business debate from Conservative, Alex Fergusson, on Less Favoured Areas.

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