Greenock & Inverclyde Scottish Parliament e-Brief
	Issue 95, 17th December 2001

SECTION 1 - BUSINESS THIS WEEK

THE CHAMBER

IN COMMITTEE

This week's highlights in the Committee Chambers are likely to include:

• Justice 2 continues with stage 2 of the Sexual Offences Bill and takes evidence for its Inquiry into the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
• Local Government takes evidence from Minister for Finance and Public Services, Andy Kerr, on the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman Bill.
• Finance meets for a full day to take evidence for its PFI/PPP inquiry, and considers the Presiding Officer’s letter on Holyrood.
• Education meets in private to begin draft reports on a Children’s Commissioner and the Scottish Borders Inquiry.
• Enterprise takes evidence from the SQA and the Institute of Career Guidance for its Lifelong Learning Inquiry.
• European considers implementation of EU/EC legislation in Scotland.

SECTION 2 - NEWS

QUALIFICATIONS SYSTEM SIMPLIFIED
A new credit based qualification framework to help prepare Scotland’s workforce has been launched today.

Speaking at the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) Conference in Glasgow, Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Wendy Alexander stressed that, to meet the challenges placed on them in the increasingly global marketplace, it is vital that people are skilled.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is a joint initiative of Universities Scotland, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Scottish Executive. It will build on the existing SCOTCAT (Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer) system for higher education.

The proposed Framework will comprise 12 levels covering all Scottish qualifications from Higher Still Access level to postgraduate qualifications provided in schools, further education and higher education; and work-based Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs). Credits will be allocated to individual qualifications according to their "size" in terms of notional learning hours (1 credit point for each 10 hours of learner effort, assuming a 1200 hour learning year).

The Framework will make the Scottish qualifications system easier to understand for leavers, employees, employers and providers, including the relationships between qualifications. It will help learners to plan their progress towards their learning and career goals; and also to transfer credits from one qualification towards another where relevant.

Full Story

NEW LANARK BECOMES WORLD HERITAGE SITE
New Lanark, the 19th century mill complex on the banks of the River Clyde, has been added to the list of World Heritage sites.

The decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ranks New Lanark alongside the Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China and Venice as a cultural site of international importance.

It becomes the fourth part of Scotland to be recognised, following neolithic Orkney (1999), Edinburgh's Old and New Towns (1995), and the islands of St Kilda.

Historic Scotland, an agency of the Scottish Executive, wrote the nomination for New Lanark in June 2000 and it was submitted on behalf of the UK government by Donald Dewar, the then First Minister for Scotland.

World Heritage Sites are classified as places or buildings of exceptional universal value which deserve protection for the benefit of humanity.

Built in an outstanding natural setting, New Lanark is a focus for architectural, technological and historic interest. It was created as a cotton-spinning village in the late 18^th to early 19^th centuries and developed under the enlightened management of Robert Owen.

Owen acquired international fame as the creator of the model community which provided unprecedented facilities and services for the resident workforce and their families. The extent of the influence New Lanark had should be noted as it led to many social improvements including progressive education, factory reform, more humane working practices and garden cities.

The village has survived little changed since it was originally built. It has been the subject of major conservation works since the mid-1970s. This has been largely carried out by the New Lanark Conservation Trust, an independent charity set up in 1975 to restore and preserve the historic village. The Trust owns a good deal of the village and also manages the housing.

Historic Scotland has funded a number of the works carried out at New Lanark, at the time of the nomination being submitted in June 2000, the total amount was £1.7 million.

Full Story

SECTION 3 - NOTES ON THIS WEEK’S CHAMBER BUSINESS

The last week of Chamber Business before the Christmas recess begins on WEDNESDAY with a debate from the Finance Committee on its Report on Stage 2 of the Budget Process.

Published on Friday 14^th December 2001, the report examines the Scottish Executive's draft budget for 2002/03.

Last year, "serious concern" was expressed at the lack of information and the way it was provided. The Finance Committee has said this year's process has gone a long way to meeting previous criticisms and that, as a result, the level of detailed scrutiny is much greater than at Westminster.

The committee is determined to ensure that progress continues to be made on establishing clear links between expenditure and the results of that spending, but is concerned that no opportunity was given to scrutinise the reallocation of last year's underspends.

The committee accepted that in times of rising public spending allocations there is greater potential for underspends, but noted that subject committees are concerned that projects are not getting off the ground as quickly as they should and that there is a failing in the procurement process, evidenced by this level of underspend.

However, the committee is pleased that the Executive has now put in place a system of quarterly reporting back to Ministers by departments so that from this year they will have a clearer picture of potential underspend within departments.

Click Here to Read the Report in Full

Click Here to Read the Evidence

Member's Business comes from the SNP's Fiona McLeod and discusses Scottish Science Library and Scottish Business Information Service.

THURSDAY morning sees the third and final stages of two pieces of legislation.

The first is the Scottish Local Government (Elections) Bill. As regular readers will know, this Bill will extend council terms to four years, with elections on the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections and enable flexibility with voting methods such as postal and Sunday voting.

See e-Brief 91 and Committee News Issues 46 and 52 for background information.

During Stage 2 consideration in the Local Government Committee, Executive amendments ensuring that local government elections do not require to be held on the same day as Scottish Parliament extraordinary elections were passed without a vote.

Keith Harding’s (CON) amendments addressing disability access were recognised as necessary, but Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services, Peter Peacock, was concerned that the amendments as drafted would inadvertently constrain what ministers can approve. The minister gave assurances that the Executive would seek to bring forward an amendment at Stage 3 to address access and Mr Harding’s amendments were withdrawn.

As before, most of the debate on Thursday is likely to centre around synchronising the dates of Council and Scottish Parliament elections.

This will be followed by Stage 3 of the School Education (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill.

Another bill with which regular readers will be familiar, it seeks to clarify an issue arising from the Standards in Scotland’s Schools Act 2000 by amending the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. It also brings legislation into line with the "McCrone" settlement.

The bill's general principles are:

• To clarify the law on the provision of education for children under school age for whom placing requests have been made; and
• To make provision relating to the abolition of the post of assistant head teacher.

More specifically:

• The provision concerning placing requests is to correct an unintended consequence that arose as a result of the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000. By restricting placing request to children over five, the Act unintentionally excludes the parents of children starting school slightly earlier, at four and a half, from making placing requests.
• The second provision, abolishing the post of assistant head teacher, is to ensure that the pay and conditions agreement reached with the teaching profession and local authorities earlier this year can be implemented in full. Abolishing the post means local authorities will have more flexibility in their arrangements for promoted staff in schools and some of the existing restrictions can be removed.

See e-Brief 89 for background information.

The above bill is fairly straightforward and relatively uncontroversial. Should, however, it not be possible to complete stage 3 in the morning session, debate will continue in the afternoon after Question Time and First Minister's Question Time.

The final Member's Business debate of 2001 is on a motion regarding New Lanark from Labour's Karen Gillon.

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