Scottish Parliament e-Brief
Issue 58, 19th March 2001
SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK
1. THE CHAMBER
Wednesday 21st March
14:34 Stage 1 Debate: the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Bill
17:00 Members Business: Scottish Berry Project (Irene McGugan (SNP))
Thursday 22nd March
09:30 Social Justice Committee Debate: Drug Misuse and Deprived Communities (Ends 12:30)
14:30 Question Time
15:10 First Minister's Question Time
15:30 Executive Debate: Rural Scotland
17:00 Member's Business: Recycling in Fife (Iain Smith (LIB DEM))
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
The likely highlights in the Committee Chambers this week are:
For more detail, please see tomorrow's Committee News.
SECTION 2 - NEWS
REDUCTION IN DELAYED DISCHARGES FROM HOSPITALS INTO COMMUNITY CARE
The number of patients in Scottish hospitals waiting to be discharged into community care has fallen since September 2000.
This – and other findings - are published as part of the second ever census of Patients Ready for Discharge.
Health Minister, Susan Deacon, welcomed the improved position and praised better joint working between NHS and local authority staff, supported by the extra £34 million of investment made available by the Executive this year to tackle the problem of ‘delayed discharge’.
The January 2001 census shows:
For the full report, go to: www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd
First Minister Henry McLeish has kicked off a radical new programme to develop Scotland’s young football talent into top-class international players.
The first two football academies to be developed in partnership between football and government will be at Kilmarnock and Rangers.
Mr McLeish announced an increase of £1.2 million to the initiative with £5 million now available to develop facilities designed to nurture young talent.
Kilmarnock and Rangers each received £500,000 from sportscotland Lottery Fund together with £150,000 award from the Reduction in Pools Betting Duty monies. The academies will identify, coach and develop young players by improving strength and condition, diet and by improving mental and physical performance. Specialist coaching and development staff will be provided through the facilities including under 18 and under 21 coaches, physiotherapists and conditioning coaches.
A condition of awards is that some of the facilities are made available for community access. The indoor football hall and new generation synthetic grass pitch will be the focus of community access in each case.
SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS
The first item on the agenda on WEDNESDAY is Stage 1 of the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Bill.
This is another Executive Bill with which readers of the Committee News will be familiar.
The bill amends aspects of Scots law which may be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The main issues involved are:
Also included in the bill is a general remedial power which gives Scottish ministers greater powers than their Westminster counterparts to bring legislation into line with the ECHR. Concerns were expressed at Committee about the breadth of the power, however there is an important constitutional reason why the powers of Scottish ministers need to be enhanced.
Westminster is sovereign. Therefore, if they wish to pass a Bill which is incompatible with the ECHR no-one can stop them. A citizen would have to bring a court case to challenge such a law. However, the Scottish Parliament like any other body is subject to the law of the land, and any Scottish Act which was not ECHR-compatible could be struck down by the courts forthwith. The Bill gives Scottish ministers power to take preventative action to stop this happening by bringing such an errant law into line.
The evening's Members Business is on a motion on the Scottish Berry Project from the SNP's Irene McGugan.
THURSDAY morning is taken up with Social Justice Committee Debate on their report into Drug Misuse and Deprived Communities.
The highly detailed and wide-ranging report was published at the end of last year, the inquiry having begun in August 1999. The Committee recognised that drug misuse is one of the most serious problems affecting Scotland today and had the impression, which was subsequently confirmed, that deprived communities, with poor housing, poor amenities and high levels of unemployment were the most seriously affected areas.
The Committee is convinced of the strong link between deprivation and drug misuse. One strong indicator is that the admission rate to hospitals for drug related cases for 1998 across Scotland was more than seventeen times higher for people from the most deprived areas compared with the most affluent. The Committee also looked at the effect of drug misuse on communities and on family life. The report is concerned at the level of children and young people who are in high risk groups and vulnerable to drug misuse: families where the parent has a drug, alcohol or other serious personal problem, young people leaving care, young offenders; truants and school excludees; and those involved in family conflict.
The Committee also recognised that problem drug use in Scotland is inextricably linked with other extreme forms of social exclusion, notably homelessness, persistent offending and street prostitution.
This debate will consider the report and the Executive's response to it.
Click here to read the full report
After Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there will be an Executive Debate on Rural Scotland.
While this debate is about a wide range of rural issues, much of the discussions are likely to return to the current foot and mouth situation.
The week's business in the chamber closes with a Member's Business debate from Iain Smith (LIB DEM), on Recycling in Fife.
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