Scottish Parliament e-Brief

Issue 94, 10^th December 2001

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE

• Equal Opportunities takes evidence from Alex Neil on his Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Bill.
• Finance takes evidence from MSF, GMB, TGWU and Unison for its PPP / PFI Inquiry.
• Justice 1 continues the Regulation of the Legal Profession Inquiry with evidence from the Crown Office and the Executive.
• Audit considers a paper in private on the report by the Auditor General for Scotland entitled 'The New Trunk Road Contracts - An Examination of the Competition for the Maintenance and Management of the Trunk Road Network'.
• Enterprise and Lifelong Learning continues taking evidence for its Lifelong Learning Inquiry.
• Local Government takes evidence for the Local Government Finance Inquiry before meeting in private to consider the findings of the external research project on Council Tax rebanding.
• Social Justice takes evidence from Deputy Social Justice Minister Margaret Curran on the Social Justice Annual Report and its Inquiry into the Voluntary Sector.
• Health and Community Care begins Stage 2 of the Community Care and Health Bill.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

DRINK DRIVING CAMPAIGN NOW UNDERWAY
The Scottish Executive has joined with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland to launch this year's Christmas Drink Driving campaign.

Deputy Transport Minister Lewis Macdonald warned against losing sight of the Spirit of Christmas by combining alcoholic spirits with driving.

The national campaign will run from today to 7^th January. Radio adverts will air on all the main commercial stations from now until 3^rd January and posters will go up in the washrooms of clubs, bars and pubs. Taxis in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen will also sport side adverts featuring the slogan "DRINK DRIVING. YOU’VE TOO MUCH TO LOSE"

The launch coincides with the publication of new research commissioned by the Executive showing that many Scots do drive after drinking. Drinking and Driving: Prevalence, Decision-making and Attitudes published today looks at attitudes towards drink-driving in Scotland.

The main findings of the research are:

• Around one in five drivers say they have driven when they thought they might be over the limit and one in twenty admit to having done so within the last year.
• Around six out of ten drivers have driven a vehicle within a few hours of drinking some alcohol. Four in ten have done so within the past year.
• Men, particularly younger men aged between 17 and 26, are more likely to drink before driving.
• Drivers appear to be less aware of the risks of ‘next day’ driving.

Full Story

POTENTIAL FOR ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Scotland has the capacity to be self-sufficient in electricity from renewable energy and have plenty left over for the rest of the UK, it was confirmed today.

The findings of the renewables resource study, commissioned by the Executive, show that Scotland has a potential renewable energy resource in excess of 60 Gigawatts (GW). A great majority of this is made up of wind, both onshore and offshore, as well as wave and tidal energy.

The renewable study by consultants Garrad Hassan has identified the magnitude of the potential renewable energy resource across Scotland to 2020. The study used up-to-date information on each resource, and modelled it against economic, environmental, planning and technical constraints. The study indicates that nearly 60GW of new renewable energy generating capacity could be available in and offshore Scotland at under 7p per unit in 2010 (including connection costs but not grid strengthening costs). For comparison, the total UK installed generation capacity is around 80GW, while the total amount of electricity supplied in a year is around 390 Terawatt hours (TWh).

The grid study, also commissioned by the Executive, was carried out by the network owners, ScottishPower and Scottish and Southern Energy, with some input from Strathclyde University. It shows that the network can connect around 1GW of new capacity without upgrades. This is more than enough to satisfy the Executive’s target for renewables of 18% by 2010. The cost of upgrades required to increase the capacity available is under £200m.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

The main business on WEDNESDAY afternoon is an Executive debate on "Our National Health" - Delivering Change.

This is likely to focus on what progress is being made towards achieving the goals set out in Our National Health: A Plan for Action, A Plan for Change since its publication a year ago. Described at the time as "the biggest health improvement drive ever seen in Scotland", the document outlines how the investment in health in Scotland will be matched by improvement in services and health for patients.

It aims to:

• Improve Scotland’s health, and close the health gap between rich and poor.
• Restore the NHS as a national service - setting national standards of care to be delivered locally across Scotland.
• Improve access to services - reducing waiting and making the patient’s ‘journey of care’ easier, quicker and safer.
• Give patients, public and communities a real voice in the way the NHS is run.
• Provide better care for young and older people.
• Tackle the ‘big three’ priorities: heart disease, cancer and poor mental health.
• Improve care and standards in the NHS by valuing and empowering staff and working in partnership with them to work in new, more collaborative, flexible and effective ways.

Click here to read the full report, Our National Health: A Plan for Action, A Plan for Change

Click here to read the Action Summary

Click here to read the briefing notes

Member's Business comes from the Conservative, Brian Monteith, and discusses the Closure of Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department Offices in Stirling, Dundee and Forfar.

THURSDAY morning sees two debates from the SNP on Health and the Scottish Prison Service.

At the time of writing, unfortunately, neither motion has been published. The focus of the debate, therefore, is unclear. Full details will be published in the Business Bulletin shortly and a full transcript will be available in the Official Report at 08:00 on Friday.

After Question Time and First Minister's Question Time, there will be an Executive debate on Sea Fisheries.

This will focus on the European Union Fisheries Council, which is meeting this weekend. Quota levels (the latest of which the UK Government has recently criticised for going too far) and the decommissioning scheme are therefore likely to feature.

Also, as the debate will involve how Scottish interests are represented in Europe, it is inevitable that the issue of how this should best be done will be discussed. While the SNP would contend that independence would increase our representation, the Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties disagree, arguing that Scotland's membership of the UK allows it the greatest level of influence.

Again, at the time of writing the motion has not been published and no more details are available. However full details will be published in the Business Bulletin shortly and a full transcript will be available in the Official Report at 08:00 on Friday.

The day concludes with a Member's Business debate on the Proposed Closure of Binny House, Sue Ryder Centre from Labour's Bristow Muldoon.

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