Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 92, 26^th November 2001

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE

This week's likely highlights are:

• Transport and Environment takes evidence for its Aquaculture Inquiry and continues consideration of its draft report on the Water Industry Bill.
• Finance has an evidence taking session for its PFI/PPP Inquiry.
• Equal Opportunities considers a petition from the Deaf Equality and Accessibility Forum and in private considers draft reports on the Freedom of Information Bill and the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.
• Justice 1 continues taking evidence on Stage 1 of the Freedom of Information Bill.
• Rural Development continues stage 2 of the Protection of Wild Mammals Bill, takes evidence for stage 1 of the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Bill and considers a paper on Sea Cage Fish Farming.
• Local Government has a marathon evidence taking session for stage 1 of the Marriage (Scotland) Bill.
• Enterprise and Lifelong Learning takes evidence from the Open University, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise as part of its Lifelong Learning Inquiry.
• Social Justice continues taking evidence for its Voluntary Sector Inquiry.

More detail will follow in tomorrow's Committee News.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

McCONNELL TO RECEIVE THE ROYAL WARRANT
Jack McConnell is this afternoon due to receive the Royal Warrant approving his appointment as First Minister.

Mr McConnell will receive the Warrant during an audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The next stage in the process comes tomorrow when he is sworn in by the Lord President of the Court of Session as First Minister and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland.

He was nominated as the next First Minister by the Parliament last week, receiving 70 votes and being declared victor on the first ballot over three rival candidates who received a total of 56 votes between them.

Mr McConnell, the MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw and formerly the Minister for Education, Europe, and External Affairs, succeeds Henry McLeish who resigned earlier this month after just over one year in the post. Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace will continue to act as First Minister, under the terms of the Scotland Act 1998, until Mr McConnell takes the oath and is confirmed as First Minister.

The new Cabinet will be announced once Mr McConnell formally takes up his duties as First Minister.

Full Story

ACCESS TO CIVIL JUSTICE REPORT
A report by a group set up to look at how a joined-up community legal service might be developed to improve access to civil justice was published today.

The Group, set up in October 2000, included representatives from a wide range of organisations including the Scottish Legal Aid Board, Shelter Scotland, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, Scottish Association of Law Centres, Federation of Independent Advice Centres, HomePoint, Scottish Homes, Scottish Employment Rights Network, Citizens Advice Scotland, Money Advice Scotland, the Scottish Consumer Council, the statutory equality bodies and the Law Society of Scotland.

The Group has concluded that there is a need to improve access to justice. Recent research confirms significant shortcomings in the provision of legal advice and information in Scotland which have to be resolved before justice can be accessible to all. The Group highlights the importance of developing a joined-up, user-friendly and quality-assured network of legal information, advice and help across Scotland to remedy this problem. It makes a number of recommendations: but it acknowledges that it will take time to achieve real change.

Key recommendations for immediate action include:

• A project to map supply of existing advice provision in Scotland against demand for services, in order to identify gaps;
• Research on the use of innovative methods of delivery of services; and
• A detailed audit of existing quality standards and assurance schemes in use in Scotland by the advice sector.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

As you may have noticed from the occasional report in the press, a reshuffle is scheduled to be announced tomorrow. WEDNESDAY, therefore, begins earlier than usual with debate on 2 motions appointing first the Cabinet Ministers and then the Junior Ministers.

Continuing the recent rapid progress with key pieces of legislation, this is followed by Stage 1 of the Community Care and Health Bill - the legislation which introduces free personal care for the elderly.

As fans of the Committee News will be aware, most of the debate is likely to centre around whether a definition of personal care should be placed on the face of the bill, as this has dominated Stage 1 evidence at the Health and Community Care Committee.

Member's Business comes from Labour's Maureen Macmillan and discusses Gaelic Medium Education.

THURSDAY is an opposition day. This week, the SNP lead debates on Proportional Representation in Local Government and the Scottish Transport Group Pension Scheme.

While the text of the motions has not been published, it is safe to assume that the former will see a call from the SNP, in line with their stated policy, for the Executive to introduce PR in Local Government elections.

The latter may focus on the timescale for members of the Scottish Transport Group pension scheme to receive their share of the surplus in the scheme. The latest position is that the final dissolution order should be placed before the Parliament before Christmas. After that things will begin to move relatively quickly, with the 4,000 members who have returned forms registering their interest being paid out first. At the same time, a major publicity campaign will be launched to ensure that everyone who is entitled to a share of the fund registers.

Full details will be in the Official Report published on Friday and the text of the motions will appear in the Business Bulletin in the next few days.

After Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there will be an Executive debate on Social Justice. This will focus on the publication today of the Social Justice Annual Report 2001 - the document which the Executive's progress towards achieving its ambitious social justice goals.

These goals include:

• The elimination of child poverty in a generation;
• Enabling all our young people to contribute and develop life-skills;
• Full employment by providing opportunities for all those who can work;
• Securing dignity in old age; and
• Building strong, inclusive communities.

Click here to read a summary of the report.

The Annexes to the report (with indicators of progress, definitions, data, baseline and trends information) is also available online by clicking here.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on Digital Hearing Aids and Review of Audiology Services from Liberal Democrat, Mike Rumbles.

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