IOG: Parliament News, issue 18/may 2002

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

2 May: Jack McConnell, First Minister, and Senor Artur Mas, the Prime Minister of Catalonia signed a Protocol of Co-operation to strengthen relations between the two nations. This is the first agreement between Scotland's devolved government and a European administration.

3 May: Wendy Alexander, Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, tendered her resignation from the Scottish Cabinet. Ms Alexander intends to stay on in Parliament as MSP for Paisley North.

3 May: following the recent visit to the Parliament, the Speakers of the Serbian and Montenegrin Parliaments announced plans to adopt some of the procedures they saw working at Holyrood. The Serbian Speaker in particular is now planning to introduce question time for Ministers and a public petitions committee.

7 May: a 9ft bronze statue of the late Donald Dewar, Scotland's first First Minister, was unveiled in Glasgow by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

9 May: Jack McConnell, First Minister, gave a Europe Day message stating that Scotland has a full role to play in the future of Europe both as a participant in the debate on European Structures and as a participant in trade with the new enlarged Europe. The European Union is considering enlargement of the Union from 15 to 27 members.

13 May: launch of a declaration on the future governance of the EU prepared by 10 European regions: Aquitaine (France), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Hessen (Germany), Marche (Italy), Skane (Sweden), Tuscany (Italy), Flanders, Wallonia, Wales and Scotland (Jim Wallace, Deputy First Minister, represented Scotland). The declaration is a statement on the views of European Sub-Member State Administrations.

14 May: Nicol Stephen, Deputy Education Minister, launched the Connection Communities Programme at the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) Scotland Conference. The programme involves training community learning practitioners in how to best use Information and Communications Technology and aims to increase the use of ICT in the running and delivery of learning agency services.

17 May: Malcolm Chisholm, Minister for Health, launched NHS Education for Scotland, a new body which will promote multi-disciplinary training and education for healthcare professions across the country. This new body brings together the three existing bodies, the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, the Post Qualification Education Board for Pharmacists, and the National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting for Scotland, under a new umbrella forum.

17 May: Jack McConnell, First Minister, launched the new Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry service. Superfast Ferries will operate a two ferry service on a daily basis, shuttling between the Fife terminal and the Belgian port. A one-way crossing takes 17 hours and the ferries will carry a mixture of freight transport and car passengers.

22 May: Jamie Stone, MSP, announced the launch of Voices of Scotland competition. Quotes will be sought from people across Scotland, and winning entries will be displayed on the hoardings around the Holyrood site.

23 May: Malcolm Chisholm, Minister for Health and Community Care, announced that the second tranche of dedicated investment in Scotland's Cancer Strategy will be allocated a total of £25 million, an increase of £10 million on the original plan.

28-30 May: the Parliament moved temporarily to Aberdeen when the Church of Scotland utilised its premises in Edinburgh for the annual General Assembly. It was the first time a Scottish Parliament had sat in Aberdeen since 1362.

28 May: the Queen became the first Head of State to address the Scottish Parliament in session. In her address to the Parliament sitting in Aberdeen the Queen reaffirmed her trust, faith and confidence in the Parliament.

29 May: Ross Finnie, Minister for Environment and Rural Development, stated that the trial of GM crops should proceed on a step-by-step basis and insisted that many allegations about the crop trials are unfounded.

29 May: Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, was confirmed as a new high-profile ambassador for Scotland and Ireland's joint bid to host the Euro 2008 Championship.

30 May: Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services, announced the second wave of the Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) work shadow initiative, the aim of which is to give people from a range of backgrounds the chance to see what holding a public appointment involves. Mr Kerr said that the Executive are still not attracting enough women, people from ethnic communities or people with disabilities to come forward to serve on NDPBs.

30 May: Iain Gray, Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, announced the launch of a review of Scotland's Further Education colleges. Mr Gray invited everyone with an interest in FE in Scotland to comment on how FE should be governed and accountable.

30 May: Jack McConnell, First Minister, made a statement in Parliament on the legislative programme, stating that so far a total of 36 Executive Bills have been passed by Parliament, others were in progress and he proposed to bring forward another six Bills by April next year. These will include measures on child protection, help for children with special education needs, and additional public involvement in planning matters. Mr McConnell also invited MSPs to contribute ideas on how to tackle social problems such as vandalism, graffiti, neighbourhood disputes and street litter.

Appointments

4 May:

The Cabinet

Iain Gray was moved from his post as Minister for Social Justice to Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning (post resigned by Wendy Alexander).
Margaret Curran was moved from her post as Deputy Minister for Social Justice to Minister for Social Justice (previously held by Iain Gray).
Hugh Henry was moved from his post as Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care to Deputy Minister for Social Justice (previously held by Margaret Curran).
Frank McAveety was appointed Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care (previously held by Hugh Henry).

9 May: Mr Graham Donaldson has been appointed HM Senior Chief Inspector of HM Inspectorate of Education to replace Mr Douglas Osler who retires on 1 November 2002.

13 May: A new chairman and five new members have been appointed to the Scottish Industrial Development Advisory Board (the Board advises the Executive on large Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) cases): Mr Vikram Lall (Chairman), Prof Brian Ashcroft, Mrs Lynne Cadenhead, Dr Helen Colquhoun, Dr Brendan McGuckin, Mrs Pamela Stewart.

27 May: the Executive appointed Michael Watts as a Non-Executive Member of its Management Group.

System Three poll (for The Herald)

(887 people in 33 constituencies surveyed between May 23 - 29, 2002)

The System Three poll, carried out at the end of May, noted voting intentions for both the Scottish Parliament (two votes) and the House of Commons.

	Holyrood 1st vote	Holyrood 2nd vote	Westminster
Lab	40%	34%	49%
SNP	29%	29%	21%
LibDem	14%	15%	13%
Con	10%	10%	13%
SSP	5%	6%	4%
Green	1%	4%	} 1%
Others	1%	2%	} 1%

Bills

2 May: the Scottish Qualifications Bill: Stage 3 was passed in Parliament. The Bill aims to introduce a smaller, more streamlined SQA Board to focus on the strategic management of the organisation, create a new Advisory Council to ensure that stakeholders have a say in the SQA's decision making, and introduce other measures to ensure that Ministers will be able to maintain close communications with the SQA in future.

16 May: the Local Government in Scotland Bill was introduced to Parliament. The overall aim of the Bill is to provide a framework to enable the delivery of better, more responsive public services, the main components being:

a duty to secure "Best Value" in local government service provision, replacing compulsory competitive tendering with the pursuit of continuous improvement in all aspects of local authority functions;
a statutory basis for "Community Planning" to ensure long-term commitment to effective partnership working with communities and between local authorities and other key bodies and organisations;
a "power to advance well-being" to enable local authorities to work in a more innovative and creative way in responding to the needs of their communities.

Committees

1 May: the Europe Committee launched an inquiry into job creation, corporate social responsibility and skills and mobility in Scotland. The inquiry will form part of Europe's Employment Strategy (EES) which aims to tackle unemployment and eliminate poverty.

2 May: the Audit Committee published a report on the NHS Scotland. The report highlights an emerging picture of a number of trusts building up deficits year after year and calls on the Executive to ensure that 'one-off' injections are the exception and the NHS budgets be resourced properly and brought into annual balance.

13 May: the Justice 1 Committee visited HM Prison & YOI Glenochil. The visit is the latest stage in the parliamentary scrutiny of the Prison Estates Review which was announced by Jim Wallace, Minister for Justice, on 21 March.

16 May: the Finance Committee published a new piece of research 'Moving to Outcome Budgeting'. The study identifies a need for Scotland's budgetary arrangements to be overhauled and argues for a move towards 'outcome budgeting' which the Committee hopes will lead to much greater scrutiny of the Executive's spending plans and overall performance.

17 May: the Social Justice Committee issued a call seeking views from all interested parties on the general principles of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Bill. The Bill will provide an alternative to poindings and warrant sales.

20 May: MSPs from the Rural Development Committee visited Colonsay to hear about rural life and work, and difficulties facing island communities.

27 May: the Equal Opportunities Committee held a civic participation event while Parliament was sitting in Aberdeen and invited over 100 representatives from community and equality groups throughout Aberdeenshire and the Highlands and Islands to take part.

30 May: the Local Government Committee issued a call seeking views from all interested parties on the general principles of the Local Government Bill.

Research opportunities

The Scottish Parliament has a budget for commissioning research for Parliamentary committees and holds a database of researchers interested in tendering for committee research. Anyone wishing to be included in the database should complete the on-line form on the Parliament website at

www.scottish.parliament.uk/whats_happening/research/ext-res-form.html

Publications

Scottish Executive publications can be accessed on the Scottish Executive website at www.scotland.gov.uk/publications/recent.asp

Some of those published in the last month include:

Protocol of Co-operation between the Scottish Executive and the Government of Catalonia: formal agreement about areas of policy co-operation with Catalonia. 8.5.02

Scottish Executive Response to the Social Justice Committee Inquiry into the Voluntary Sector: 10.5.02

Common Declaration on EU Governance: a common declaration about reform of the EU produced by a network of European regions. 13.5.02

Scottish Executive Economist Group - Discussion Paper Series: Benefits and threats of EU enlargement for Scotland: second article in the Economist Group Discussion paper series setting out Scotland's position in relation to EU enlargement. 14.5.02

A Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland: Consultation Report: table of 37 respondents. 17.5.02

Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information - Report on the calendar year 2001: information and statistics on the operation of the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information in 2001. 17.5.02

Scottish Executive Development Department Research 2002-2003: details of future, ongoing and published research. 22.5.02

Review of Governance and Accountability: consultation paper on Governance and Accountability in the Education Sector. 30.5.02

Links to other issues of Parliament News

Contact

Should you have any comments or enquiries please do not hesitate to contact Margaret MacPherson at the Institute of Governance.

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