IOG: Parliament News, issue 58/june 2006

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

1 June: Cathy Jamieson, Minister for Justice, announced that a review is underway of Scotland's ability to deal with simultaneous major emergencies. The review will be conducted by a team of Justice Department officials, along with HM Chief Inspector of Fire Services and they will examine:

readiness to deal with major emergencies ranging from terrorist attacks to extreme weather events;
the adequacy of communications within and between the emergency services;
the potential for greater collaboration between emergency services and other local responders, such as health boards and local authorities.

5 June: the Sentencing Commission for Scotland published its report on the Basis On Which Fines Are Determined. The report contained the following main recommendations:

that the necessary prerequisite for changing the system governing the imposition of fines to one involving unit or day fines as seen on the Continent, namely a simple reliable and cost-effective means to gather information on offenders' income - was not currently available;
that offenders who can demonstrate, by way of verified information, that their total disposable income is extremely low, or the imposition of a fine would bring it to an extremely low level, should not be fined and should have an alternative punishment imposed, for example, a Supervised Attendance Order or a Community Reparation Order;
that offenders who default on a fine up to £5,000 should not be imprisoned for default but should have a Supervised Attendance Order imposed;
that the penalty for breach of a Supervised Attendance Order should be increased so that up to 3 months' imprisonment may be imposed.

6 June: Tavish Scott, Minister for Transport, announced the start of the Delta Air Lines flight from Edinburgh to Atlanta.

7 June: Tom McCabe, Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, announced that an independent review will look at how improvements could be made in inspection, regulation, audit and complaints handling for public services in Scotland.

8 June: members of the public can view on-line MSP allowances expenditure.

8 June: George Reid, Presiding Officer, welcomed representatives of the Basque Parliament to Scotland for a five day fact-finding visit. Mr Reid said the Basque Parliament is particularly interested in Holyrood's commitment to sharing power with the people through the petitions system, through e-democracy and through outreach to its citizens.

9 June: Tom McCabe, Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, announced that the electronic counting of votes was given the go ahead for the 2007 combined elections. The decision to use e-counting in Scottish Parliament and local authority elections, to be held on May 3 next year was taken jointly by Scottish Ministers and the Secretary of State for Scotland.

13 June: Lewis Macdonald, Deputy Minister for Health, announced publication of the Care Inquiry Report that recognises that Scotland's free personal and nursing care policy is a success which has benefited nearly 50,000 older people in Scotland.

15 June: Tom McCabe, Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform, announced the publication of a discussion document Transforming Public Services that seeks views from those who deliver and use public services.

16 June: Malcolm Chisholm, Minister for Communities, announced the allocation of £2 million funding targeted at locally based projects designed to support cross community integration, helping organisations and communities to bring people together, tackle racism and promote equality.

16 June: Ross Finnie, Minister for Environment, speaking via video at the Environment Conference of the Regions of Europe (ENCORE) called on European regions to join an international programme to tackle climate change. Mr Finnie said that the Executive is mainstreaming climate thinking across all departments and will carbon proof all new policies.

19 June: Nicol Stephen, Deputy First Minister, spoke at the 'Neftegaz 2006' oil and gas exhibition in Moscow during a three-day visit to the city. Mr Stephen, who was accompanied by a Scottish trade delegation, said his visit aimed to open doors and build benefits for Scotland.

20 June: the Rt Hon The Lord Boyd of Duncansby QC, The Lord Advocate, and Dr Campbell Gemmell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), launched a new Protocol for the reporting and prosecution of environmental offences. A copy of the Protocol can be downloaded at http://www.copfs.gov.uk

20 June: publication of a study carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Stirling 'Establishing the Evidence Base for an Evaluation of Free Personal Care in Scotland'. The main findings included:

there is broad support for free personal care;
free personal care was introduced at a time of extensive change in policies for older people;
the need for greater clarity on how to calculate the costs of free personal care;
in recent years the balance of care changed with a shift to more care at home.

This study lays the foundations for the full independent review of free personal care which is under way and will conclude later this year.

20 June: Cathy Jamieson, Minister for Justice, announced that the current system for automatically releasing short-term offenders from Scotland's prisons without restrictions is to be scrapped and replaced with a new system with public safety at its heart. The reforms build on the proposal from the Sentencing Commission's report on early release, published in January. They will mean that all offenders will be under restrictions for their entire sentence.

22 June: the Rt Hon Hilary Benn, MP, Secretary for International Development, visited the Parliament to give a special address on ending global poverty, chaired by George Reid, Presiding Officer.

22 June: Margaret Curran, Minister for Parliamentary Business, announced changes to the programme of legislation laid out by Ministers last September that will strengthen existing priorities. Ms Curran said the new Bills to protect vulnerable groups and address issues around asbestos related disease will be brought forward as soon as possible.

23 June: two groups of German delegations visited Holyrood to find out how the Scottish Parliamentary system operates. A cross-party delegation from the Bavarian Parliament met with MSPs and parliamentary officials to discuss the workings of the committee system. The German Ambassador to the UK, HE Wolfgang Ischinger and Ingo Radcke, Consul General to Scotland, visited the Parliament as part of a wider visit to Scotland.

23 June: a participative discussion involving an international panel took place at Holyrood as part of a major conference organised by the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, Civicus. The sessions entitled 'Civil Society and Participative Democracy' is one of 40 'learning exchange' visits taking place at organisations all over Scotland for the 6th Civicus World Assembly.

26 June: Tom McCabe, Minister for Parliament, in a statement to Parliament said that the Executive had a total underspend of £235 million on a public sector budget of £26.5 billion. The underspend, known as End Year Flexibility (EFY) represents 0.9% of the total budget. Mr McCabe said that this is the lowest ever level of underspend since devolution. This money will be carried forward into this financial year where it can be approved for again by the Parliament.

Appointments

N/A

Bills

A summary of the Bills passed by the Parliament in the 1999-2003 session can be found on the Parliament website at www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsPassed/billsum-s1.htm

8 June: the Interests of Members of The Scottish Parliament Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The Bill provides for the establishment of a register of interest for members of the Scottish Parliament and for a system for the registration and declaration of interests, both financial and non-financial. It also provides for entries in the register to be added, amended, corrected and deleted and enables parliamentary sanctions to be imposed if a member contravenes the provisions of the Bill.

14 June: the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Bill: Final Stage was passed by Parliament. The main purpose of the Bill is to give statutory authority to the Council and its successors for the construction of a railway from a point immediately south of Newcraighall to Tweedbank, largely following the formation of the former Waverley railway.

22 June: the Local Electoral Administration And Registration Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 was passed by Parliament. The main objectives of the electoral administration provisions of the Bill are to improve access to and participation at elections, enhance security and improve administrative effectiveness.

Committees

8 June: the Audit Committee published a report entitled 'Tackling waiting times in the NHS in Scotland' that commends the Health Service for good progress in reducing the number of people with long waits, but expressed doubts that sufficiently robust plans are in place to ensure new targets will be met.

8 June: the Environment and Rural Development Committee published a report stating that the current system of regulating supermarkets is failing consumers, farmers and rural economies. The Committee recommends that the competition authorities must take a wide view of what is in the consumer interest. It states that if focusing on the prices consumers have to pay now means that local farm businesses are undermined, then the freshness, quality and price of food available to consumers will suffer in the longer term.

13 June: the Health Committee published a unanimous report into the care legislation stating that funding arrangements must be improved to ensure the continued provision of free personal care for the elderly.

14 June: the Education Committee published a report urging the Executive to ensure that pre-school education in Scotland's most disadvantaged areas benefits from having qualified teaching staff in post.

14 June: the Parliament's Justice 2 Committee asked for views on the general principles of the Christmas Day and New Year's Day Trading (Scotland) Bill. The Bill aims to prohibit large shops from opening for the purpose of retail trading on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

21 June: the Justice 1 Committee published a report prepared by fingerprint experts in relation to the Shirley McKie case. As part of its inquiry into the Scottish Criminal Record Office and Scottish Fingerprint Service, the Committee sought the release of reports commissioned by Scottish Ministers from John MacLeod and Michael Pass as part of the defence of the legal action for damages brought by Shirley McKie.

22 June: the Enterprise and Culture Committee published a report criticising the management of budgets at Scottish Enterprise and its proposed restructuring. The report outlines the situation that resulted in the Scottish Executive's announcement that it would provide £50 million over the next two years to cover Scottish Enterprise's shortfall. The report also details a number of reasons as to how the situation came about.

22 June: the European and External Relations Committee published a report stating that the Executive should give greater priority to introducing a programme of co-operation between Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. As well as highlighting the possibility and benefits of co-operation, the report also promoted the possibility of EU funding being available to support these projects.

27 June: the European and External Relations Committee published a report stating that plans must be put in place to ensure Scottish projects do not lose out through changes to the distribution of European Structural Funds. The report urges the Executive to:

examine alternative funding sources for Scotland;
ensure all efforts are made to enable new programmes to begin on time;
assess the potential impact reduced funding could have on infrastructure and toursim projects;
maximise the amount of funding coming to Scotland by working closely with the UK Government; and
undertake a comprehensive consultation engaging fully with stakeholders.

29 June: the Education Committee published a report supporting the Adoption Bill that is intended to reform and extend the adoption system in Scotland.

30 June: the Justice 2 Committee endorsed the general principles of the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill but recommended that the arrangements for complaint handling are independent. The Bill has two main purposes: to reform the system for handling complaints against lawyers and to improve the delivery of publicly funded legal advice.

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
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/recruitment/extResearcher/index.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 June 2006 include:

2 June: People and Place: Regeneration Policy Statement.

13 June: More Choices, More Chances: A Strategy to Reduce the Proportion of Young People not in Education, Employment or Training in Scotland.

14 June: Scottish Executive Response to the UK Energy Review.

15 June: Transforming Public Services: The Next Phase of Reform - Executive Summary.

19 June: Enhancing Our Care of Scotland's Landscapes: Consultation Report.

20 June: Establishing the Evidence for an Evaluation of Free Personal Care in Scotland.

28 June: Changing Lives Implementation Plan: document containing proposals to implement the recommendations of Changing Lives, the report of the 21st Century Social Work Review.

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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