IOG: Parliament News, issue 25/february 2003

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

3 February: Ross Finnie, Minister for Environment and Rural Development, announced that fifty projects across Scotland are to receive funding totalling £3.2 million to help improve and modernise the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. These awards are in addition to the financial package worth up to £50 million to assist Scotland's fishing communities, announced on 28 January.

4 February: Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for Transport, launched a new Internet service Journey Time Planner for the trunk road network at http://www.nadics.org.uk/. This service uses the latest technology to offer commuters access to the most up-to-date information on traffic conditions on all major trunk roads across the country. The Journey Time Planner is part of the Streetwise Euro-regional Project and is 50% funded by the European Union.

4 February: Jim Wallace, Justice Minister, announced the publication of the Consultation Paper for a Scottish Human Rights Commission (available on the Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/justice/shrs-00.asp.) The remit of the Scottish Human Rights Commission will cover devolved matters only. It will be able to tackle matters relating to health, education, the environment and will be able to hold both Government and public authorities to account The Commission will be established as an independent body and has been proposed that it should not be accountable to Scottish Ministers but to the Scottish Parliament directly.

6 February: Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services, said that the Local Government Finance Order 2003 was being discussed in Parliament, asking MSPs to approve an 8.5% increase in revenue grant funding for local authorities next year, totalling more than £7 billion. This will ensure that every council will receive an increase in grant of between 6 and 11% next year.

6 February: Ross Finnie, Minister for Environment and Rural Development, stated that the Executive did not support the Organic Farming Targets (Scotland) Bill, saying that it made no sense for Parliament to set targets over areas for which it has no powers. Mr Finnie said that the Executive's Organic Action Plan published on 4 February includes prioritisation of organic projects for grant assistance to improve supply chain issues and support for the development of Scottish organic branding.

6 February: Margaret Curran, Minister for Social Justice, announced the creation of a new independent group 'Agenda for Action' to examine what the Executive can do to improve opportunities for women. The group will be chaired by Joan Stringer, Principal of Napier University and will meet over the next few months.

10 February: the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee held a meeting in the Parliament as part of their enquiry into 'The UK and the Euro' and took oral evidence from Scottish organisations, including the "No" Campaign, trades unions and Scottish Financial Enterprise.

10 February: Margaret Curran, Minister for Social Justice, announced that Glasgow communities supporting asylum seekers and refugees received a £750,000 funding package for integration work.

17 February: Jim Wallace, Justice Minister, welcomed Bertrand Ramcharan, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, to a Human Right's Conference in Edinburgh. The conference formed part of the Executive's consultation process on detailed proposals for a Scottish Human Rights Commission.

18 February: Jim Wallace, Minister for Justice, announced a package of reform and modernisation of the civil legal aid system in Scotland. These reforms follow the recommendations of the Parliament's Justice 1 Committee, and are the first significant changes since 1949.

19 February: Ross Finnie, Minister for Environment and Rural Development, announced the publication of the Executive's Indicators of Sustainable Development for Scotland. The report describes in detail the 24 indicators adopted in the Executive document Meeting the Needs and highlights the main actions being taken to achieve them.

19 February: Mrs Elish Angiolini, the Solicitor General for Scotland, announced the creation of a partnership between the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Services, the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre (EMLC) to specifically provide legal services to members of ethnic minority communities in Glasgow and outlying areas.

20 February: Iain Gray, Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning, was in Dusseldorf for the signing of an agreement between the Scottish Executive and North-Rhine Westphalia. The two governments have decided to focus their energies on biotechnology and 'green' technology specifically.

21 February: Sir David Steel, Presiding Officer, represented the Scottish Parliament in Paris for a weekend of high profile events to promote Scotland's links with France.

24 February: Publication of the latest edition of the Scottish Economic Report. It presents a thorough review of recent trends in the global, European, UK and Scottish economies as well as articles focusing on selected economic issues.

27 February: Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament addressed a meeting of MSPs in the Parliament's main chamber, outlining his views on EU enlargement, the future of Europe and the role of sub-national states.

27 February: Hugh Henry, Deputy Minister for Justice, in a speech during stage one debate of the Bill to introduce prostitution tolerance zones in Scotland, said that although the Executive was committed to efforts to get people out of prostitution, tolerance zones were not the solution. Mr Henry proposed the establishment of an expert working group to look at issues raised by prostitution.

Appointments

No appointments

System Three poll (for The Herald)

(1033 people in 52 constituencies surveyed between February 27 - March 5, 2003)

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

	Holyrood 1st vote	Holyrood 2nd vote	Westminster
Lab	34%	27%	42%
SNP	32%	27%	25%
LibDem	14%	15%	15%
Con	10%	10%	12%
SSP	6%	10%	4%
Green	1%	4%	} 2%
Others	1%	4%	} 2%

Bills

5 February: the general principles of the Public Appointments & Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 were agreed by Parliament. The purpose of the Bill is to establish a Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland, to abolish 6 non-departmental public bodies (the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland, the Historical Buildings Council for Scotland, the Scottish Hospital Trust, the Scottish Medical Practices Committee, the Scottish conveyancing and Executry Services Board and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland), to give certain notarial powers to independent qualified conveyancers and to conveyancing and executry practitioners, and to create a new national body which will carry out the functions of the Royal Commisson on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland as a statutory non-departmental public body. This body will be known as the National Survey of Archaeology and Buildings of Scotland.

6 February: regarding the Proportional Representation (Local Government Elections) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1, it was resolved that the Parliament noted the Local Government Committee's Stage 1 Report on the Proportional Representation (Local Government Elections) Bill and that any change to the election system could not come into effect until the 2007 local government elections at the earliest; further noted the publication by the Executive of its Local Governance (Scotland) Bill document which fulfils the commitments made to make progress on electoral reform and deals with wider issues to encourage greater participation in local government, and therefore did not agree to the general principles of the Proportional Representation (Local Government Elections) for the reason that its provisions demonstrably do not meet the extensive requirements for renewing local democracy. The objective of the Bill was to replace the current system of first-past-the-post voting used to elect Scotland's 32 local authorities with proportional representation using the single transferable vote (STV) system.

6 February: the Organic Farming Targets (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1, was defeated in Parliament. The main objective of the Bill was to increase the area of land under organic management.

12 February: the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The objective of the Bill is to provide for the creation and maintenance of a list of persons unsuitable to work with children. It will be an offence for any person on the list to work with children and for any organisation employing any person on the list.

13 February: the Budget (Scotland) (No 4) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament.

13 February: the Parliament agreed that the law which is restated in the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Bill should be restated.

20 February: the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The broad policy objectives of the Bill are to improve public protection, including victims' rights, promote effective sentencing, maintain an efficient criminal justice system, keep the law up to date and make certain changes in the law relating to young people, as well as a package of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour.

20 February: the Building (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The Bill replaces the Building (Scotland) Act 1959. The new Bill retains the general framework of the 1959 Act, though some of the procedures involved in the building standards process are changed to make them simpler and to reflect existing practice, and the hierarchy of building regulations is amended to simplify compliance with European obligations.

26 February: the Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The two main objectives of the Bill are to achieve greater clarity in the law and to reduce the number of outdated conditions on land by making it easier to discharge or vary them.

27 February: the Parliament agreed the general principles of the National Galleries of Scotland Bill: Preliminary Stage, and agreed that the Bill should proceed as a Private Bill. The objective of the Bill is to allow construction on a small area of Princes Street Gardens.

27 February: the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1, was defeated by Parliament. The objective of the Bill was to enable local authorities to designate areas within their boundaries as "prostitution tolerance zones" to ensure that loitering, soliciting or importuning by prostitutes within such zones is not illegal. The Parliament maintained that the key goal should be providing more effective support for helping women out of prostitution and there was no conclusive evidence that tolerance zones would assist in this.

Committees

13 February: the Local Government Committee published their report on Stage 1 of the Prostitution Tolerance Zones (Scotland) Bill stating that while they were sympathetic to the aims of the Bill they recommended that the Bill be reject, declaring, however, that the current law is not acceptable and asking the Executive to conduct an urgent examination into prostitution in Scotland.

20 February: publication of report by the Education, Culture and Sport Committee making a number of recommendations to help address the questions and concerns regarding the languages of Scotland and their role in society, culture and education.

21 February: the National Galleries of Scotland Bill Committee published a report endorsing the general principles of the Bill which would allow the Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland to remove a piece of land from Princes Street Gardens. This is the second Private Bill to come before the Scottish Parliament.

28 February: the Education, Culture and Sport Committee published a report endorsing the general principles of Michael Russell's Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill but stated that there are elements of it which require more consideration. The Bill's purpose is to require certain public bodies to publish and implement Gaelic language plans which would treat Gaelic and English 'on a basis of equality'.

28 February: the Rural Development Committee published a report on the fishing industry, urging the Executive to give more funding to transitional support, rather than decommissioning. The Committee believes that adequate transitional support is essential to retain the skills and infrastructure needed for a time when fish stocks have recovered.

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/contracts/contract02-01.htm

Scottish Executive Publications

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

Some of those published in the last month include:

Play Your Part in Changing Scotland: information leaflet on applying for an appointment to public bodies in Scotland. 3.2.01

Organic Action Plan. 4.2.03

The Scottish Human Rights Commission - Consultation Paper. 4.2.03

Life Through Learning; Learning Through Life: document detailing the strategy for lifelong learning for Scotland. 11.2.03

Walking Strategy for Scotland: A Consultation Document. 13.2.03

Making Progress: Quality Annual Report: report with information on Executive progress with the Equality Strategy. 19.2.03

Scottish Economic Report: February 2003; 7th edition with a review of the progress and prospects for the Scottish economy. 24.2.03

National Waste Plan 2003: 24.2.03

Scottish Parliament Election 2003: Guidance on Scottish Parliamentary Questions: document providing guidance to officials on the handling of Scottish Parliamentary Questions (PQs) before the Parliament's dissolution on 31 March 2003.

'Partnership for Care': Scotland's Health White Paper - Executive Summary. 27.2.03.

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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