Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 86, 1^st October 2001

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE

This week's likely highlights are:

• Equal Opportunities will consider a draft report on its Race Relations event, which was held in the Chamber recently and will also look at its next Civic Participation Event.
• Procedures takes evidence from Committee Convenors for its inquiry into the CSG principles. Members will also consider a paper which will allow Committees to meet when the Parliament is suspended.
• Justice 1 and Justice 2 meet jointly to take evidence from Justice Minister, Jim Wallace on the Budget Process.
• Audit takes evidence on its inquiry into Financial Management at Moray College. They will also look at the Auditor General’s report, "Mind the Gap: Management Information for Outpatient Services".
• Local Government takes evidence from Finance and Local Government Minister, Angus MacKay and officials from the Executive on the Budget Process.
• Rural Development takes evidence from Scottish Executive officials on the proposed Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. The Protection of Wild Mammals Bill has also returned to the Committee and members will decide the timetable for Stage 2.

More detail will follow in tomorrow's Committee News.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

REVIEW OF TEACHER TRAINING BEGINS
A review of entry requirements for teacher training begins today with the aim of attracting a greater diversity of potential recruits into the teaching profession.

It is the second phase of Scotland's first national teacher recruitment drive, which was launched in June and is designed to improve the profile and social standing of teachers.

The training review, coinciding with a renewed series of television and newspaper advertisements encouraging people to think of teachings as a career, will examine routes into teaching generally and how accessible teacher training is to the best potential teachers.

There will also be a dedicated call centre on 0845 345 4745 which will send out a comprehensive information booklet and CD-ROM giving details of routes into teaching in Scotland.

The agreement – "A Teaching Profession for the 21^st Century" – will see an investment of £816 million over three years, a guaranteed starting salary for teachers of £18,315 and £16,005 for a probationary teacher, together with the recruitment of around 2,900 extra teachers by 2006.

Further information about becoming a teacher can be found by logging on to the Scottish Executive’s Teaching in Scotland website on www.teachinginscotland.com

Full Story

EDUCATION BILL PUBLISHED
A new Bill to enhance the provision of education for children under school age, and which paves the way for the restructuring of the teaching profession, was published on Friday

The first section proposes amendments to the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to enable parents of children aged four and a half or over to make a placing request to start primary school.

The second section contains amendments to the School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988 to provide for the successful and timely introduction of a new career structure for the teaching profession, as outlined in the agreement "A Teaching Profession for the 21^st Century". These changes have been discussed and agreed with the Scottish School Board Association.

Both changes follow a consultation exercise which began in July.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

WEDNESDAY afternoon sees debate of an Executive motion on A Forward Strategy for Agriculture.

A discussion document entitled A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture was issued by the Scottish Executive in the Spring of 2000, and debated by the Parliament in June last year. In the light of submissions received, the Strategy itself was published on 26^th June 2001. The Rural Development Committee immediately agreed to hold an evidence session, which took place on September 18^th. A large number of organisations took the opportunity to make written submissions.

The key points of the Executive strategy are:

• Scotland needs a successful, profitable farming industry. Farming is only a part of the rural economy, but a healthy rural economy needs a healthy farming industry.
• The food and drink industry is one of Scotland's natural strengths.
• Success depends on Scotland being amongst the best. No farmer is owed a living. For the vast majority of farmers, the solution has to lie in being a full part of the food industry - learning from each other, from customers and from the best across the world - driving down costs, meeting customers' needs and working with each other to be the best.
• Farming and crofting are part of rural development, not separate. Agriculture is closely linked with other rural businesses. Many farming families already gain income from a variety of sources.
• High environmental standards in farming are vitally important to its success as a food supplier, to other rural businesses and to the general public. Much is already being done, but protecting and enhancing the environment is not always easy while maintaining the competitiveness of businesses. Perhaps for the first time, this Strategy openly acknowledges these tensions. It sets out how a more joined up approach to policy, harnessing the expertise of farmers and environmental interests and finding solutions which are good for the environment and business can be used to tackle them.
• Future support to farming must be designed in a way which rewards the mix of benefits required by the Scottish public and does not mask market signals. Scottish farmers are entitled to public subsidy in the same way as their counterparts elsewhere in Europe and beyond. Subsidy will continue but it may decline over time. The farming industry and the rural economy must be strong enough to cope with that. The Scottish Executive will be taking these messages to negotiations in London and Brussels.
• Scotland will be one of the first parts of Europe to explore a new scheme of whole farm support, Land Management Contracts, designed to reward the full mix of economic, social and environmental benefits provided by farmers and crofters. It will be in keeping with the EU drive to decouple payments from production, but shaped to meet Scotland's needs.
• Farming needs the right training, technology and advice to support it. This Strategy outlines ways of assisting with this.

Responses to the strategy
These are many and varied – the Rural Development Committee was faced with over a hundred pages at its recent meeting. A number of common themes emerge. Although consultation was extensive, some organisations feel that it was too narrow.

• The Scottish Landowners Federation welcomes the strategy’s recognition that ‘farming is not the be-all and end-all of the rural economy.’
• Scottish Enterprise notes the actions being taking to support the farming industry, and the need for more work on exit strategies and on the views of consumers.
• The Scottish Consumer Council welcomes the recognition of the consumer, particularly in regard to food safety. So does the Food Standards Agency.
• Scottish Natural Heritage welcomes the strategy, and suggests that Land Management Contracts are the mechanism for further improvements.
• The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors wishes that the strategy for agriculture had been linked to other sectors such as tourism.
• Scottish Environment Link calls for more detailed plans and resources for the Strategy’s implementation.
• The Macaulay Land Research Institute calls for less ‘agricentrism’ and more on crofting.
• The Ramblers Association welcomes the talk of ‘multifunctional’ agriculture.
• The RSPB look for biodiversity to be an explicit objective of the strategy.
• The STUC are concerned with job security for the agricultural workforce.

The full written submissions can be accessed here.

Member's Business comes from Labour's Mary Mulligan and is on the subject of the Oxfam.

THURSAY morning is dedicated to the third and final Stage of the Protection From Abuse (Scotland) Bill.

This is an historic occassion, as this is the first Committee Bill (from the Justice - now Justice 1 - Committee) to reach Stage 3 in the Chamber. It will also quite probably become Scottish Parliament's first Committee Act.

As a member of the then Justice Committee, Maureen Macmillan (LAB) brought forward the idea of extending the scope of matrimonial interdicts under the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981. At only its second meeting in August 1999, the Committee agreed to consider the possibility of legislation to provide greater protection from abuse, developing the idea into a proposal for a Committee Bill, provisionally entitled the Protection from Abuse Bill. Ms Macmillan was appointed as reporter to the Committee and met with ministers and officials of the Scottish Executive to discuss the proposals.

What Does the Bill Propose?
In essence, the problem which the Bill sets out to address is that the Matrimonial Homes Act 1981 only offers protection to current spouses, and many more people (such as former partners) are at risk of domestic violence.

Having considered various options, the Committee’s solution is to allow any person who has taken a common law interdict against a harasser to ask for a power of arrest to be attached to it.

The Bill's Passage so Far
The basis for the Bill is the Justice Committee’s 9^th Report Proposal for a Protection of Abuse Bill, published in November 2000. The Executive endorsed the Committee’s proposal and provided support with the drafting of the Bill.

Stage 1
The debate at Stage 1 was fairly straightforward, concentrating on the general principles of the Bill which found cross party support, largely limiting discussion on legal technicalities surrounding power of arrest, subsequent court procedure, and ECHR compliance. These make up most of the sections of the Bill and are discussed in the explanatory notes to the Bill.

The Bill’s explanatory notes also contain the financial memorandum which goes into detail on the estimated number of arrests each year and the likely costs to the Scottish Court Service and to Legal Aid (just under £1m per year each).

Stage 2
Since the division of the Justice Committee, Justice 2 has been the lead Committee as Justice 1 are the initiators of the Bill. At Stage 2, Justice 2 took evidence from Justice 1 supported by Deputy Justice Minister, Iain Gray. The majority of the amendments brought forward were concerned with ensuring clarity in the Bill, with the exception of amendments brought forward by Bill Aitken (CON) to section 4 concerning the powers and duties of the police. Most were rejected by the Committee, but Christine Grahame (SNP) made a commitment to re-examine issues concerned with the rights of an accused person and possibly bring forward amendments at Stage 3. None, however, has been lodged so far.

Stage 3
Bill Aitken has brought forward a number of amendments concerned again with section 4: the powers and duties of the Police. Bill Aitken’s amendments centre around amendment 5, which is a resubmission of his amendment from Stage 2 seeking to replace "as soon as practicable" with "immediately" in relation to informing the Procurator Fiscal following the moment of arrest. Mr Aitken argues that this is necessary to comply with the ECHR, but Christine Grahame and the Executive disagree, saying that it is unnecessary and impractical as the Bill already requires a person to be brought before the court on the day after the arrest. A commitment was given to clarify this in advance of the debate.

After Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, is debate of an Executive motion on Sports Promotion in Scotland's Schools.

At the time of writing, the motion has not yet been published and so the exact focus of the debate is unclear. The motion will, however, shortly be published in the Business Bulletin.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Borders' Children with Special Educational Needs from the SNP's Christine Grahame.

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