IOG: Parliament News, issue 68/oct 2007

Scottish Affairs web site

Events

1 October: the Scottish Legal Aid Board published a paper developed in consultation with the Scottish Government, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Court Service and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. The proposals in the paper support the summary justice reforms set out in the Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) Scotland) Act 2007 by substantially increasing levels of payment to criminal lawyers at early stages of the system but with the aim of saving money overall by encouraging early resolution of cases.

2 October: Linda Fabiani, External Affairs Minister, attended a Joint Ministerial Committee on Europe conference in London along with representatives from the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations. Ms Fabiani said that the Scottish Government had a range of current priorities that they will push to see represented in Europe and stated their position on the EU Reform Treaty, stressing that the Scottish Government is strongly opposed to the entrenchment of exclusive competence of the EU over marine biological resources and that control of such resources should be the responsibility of coastal nations.

9 October: Jim Mather, Energy Minister, set out the Scottish Government's submission to the UK Government consultation on nuclear power. Mr Mather said the Scottish Government rejected new nuclear power stations as dangerous and unnecessary and wants money intended for nuclear power to be reallocated to make Scotland and the UK a world leader in clean, renewable technologies. Mr Mather stated that studies show there is more than enough renewable potential in the whole of the UK and especially in Scotland to provide a diverse, low carbon electricity supply.

9 October: following the announcement of the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review by the UK Government, Alex Salmond, First Minister, said that the Treasury claim that the real-terms increase in Scotland over the next three years is 1.8% per annum but claimed that the actual, real-terms increase over the next 3 years is only 1.4% and that the difference is explained by re-drawing the baseline for English health expenditure. Mr Salmond said that the profile and the detail of these figures represents the lowest public expenditure in the UK or Scotland since the early 1980s, in terms of public spending profile.

9 October: Michael Russell, Minister for Environment, opened the UK Biodiversity Partnership Conference in Aviemore. The UK Biodiversity partnership is an organisation of those involved in protecting and conserving the natural environment and meets annualy around the UK to share experience and set future directions. Mr Russell said that the first set of Biodiversity Indicators launched at the conference show that there have been successes in some areas, but there is still much to do to protect the natural environment in Scotland.

11 October: start of a two-day visit to the United States by Alex Salmond, First Minister. Mr Salmond's visit focussed strongly on financial services to draw attention to Scotland's reputation for excellence in this sector. Mr Salmond met with a number of major financial companies in New York and visited the Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

14 October: Jim Mather, Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Minister, began a week-long visit to Canada and America. Mr Mather promoted Scotland's strengths in areas like clean energy, life sciences and financial services.

22 October: the Scottish Government hosted a summit 'A National Conversation: Scotland's Future Without Nuclear Weapons' to discuss the implications on Scotland of the UK Government's decision to replace the existing Trident defence system. Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, and Bruce Crawford, Minister for Parliamentary Business, represented the Scottish Government among representatives from churches, trade unions, local authorities, and government to discuss the impact of the UK Government's decision on devolved areas of responsibility and how best to present the Scottish view.

22 October: Alex Fergusson, Presiding Officer, attended the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE) in Berlin. Mr Fergusson called on the EU Commission to work in partnership with bodies like CALRE to ensure that the individual views of citizens across Europe are at the heart of their policy making process. Mr Fergusson met with the leaders of assemblies and parliaments from Bavaria, Catalonia and the Basque country. He also met with Peter Straub, President of CALRE and President of the Landtag (state parliament) of Baden-Wurttemberg.

22 October: the Scottish Government's plan to introduce independent scrutiny of proposals for major changes in the local NHS services was put out for consultation. The paper sets out the following key principles for independent scrutiny:

a presumption against centralisation
a rigorous and robust examination of the evidence for service change
a need to identify that a full range of options are considered and examined

The closing date for submissions is Friday January 25, 2008.

23 October: publication of the Gould Report (available on line at http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/scotreviewcontents.cfm) containing the findings of the full independent review of the 3 May 2007 Scottish Parliamentary Elections which were under the responsibility of the Scotland Office. The review looked at the number of rejected ballots, the electronic counting process and the arrangements for postal voting. Ron Gould was appointed by the Electoral Commission to head the review. Alex Salmond, First Minister, said the report raised extremely serious issues regarding the organising of the elections and that the report states that the Scotland Office and the then Scottish Executive frequently focused on 'partisan political interests', and overlooked those of the voter. Mr Salmond said the Cabinet would discuss the report in detail in order to take the many important matters in the report forwards.

26 October: first meeting of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission, the new independent body set up to investigate television production and broadcasting in Scotland. The members discussed the scope of their inquiries over the coming months and how they plan to deliver a vision and strategy for television broadcasting and production in Scotland.

26 October: Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, announced that universities and colleges across Scotland are to receive an extra £100 million capital funding package. The package will offer immediate support to colleges throughout Scotland including projects at Anniesland, Langside and Motherwell.

27 October: the Parliament hosted the launch of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. Around 200 delegates from organisations ranging from local authorities and NGOs to businesses and academia discussed how to promote a Scotland that actively believes in trade justice and fair labour standards in countries across the world.

29 October: the 19th Commonwealth Parliamentary Seminar was held in the Parliament from 29 October to 2 November. The seminar hosted 34 parliamentarians from national and regional parliaments, assemblies and senates in Ghana, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Norfolk Island, St Helena, Canada, the Caribbean Islands, Malaysia, Singapore and from Scotland and elsewhere in the British Isles. Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson, said that the aim of the seminar is to strengthen parliamentary democracy and good governance across the Commonwealth, so that the parliaments may more effectively represent the people they serve.

31 October: Nicola Sturgeon, Health and Wellbeing Secretary, announced publication of a discussion document, Firm Foundations - The Future of Housing in Scotland, which gives details of the Scottish Government's proposals for increasing housing supply and choice.

Appointments

30 October: Robin Naysmith is to take over from Michael Kellet, currently First Secretary for Scottish Affairs in Washington. The post is now designated as Scottish Government Counsellor in North America with overall responsibility for delivering the Government's strategic objectives in the US and Canada.

Bills

A summary of the Bills passed by the Parliament in the 1999-2003 and 2003-2007 sessions can be found on the Parliament website at

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsPassed/billsum-s1.htm

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billsnotInProgress-s2/index.htm

Committees

18 October: the Parliamentary Pension Scheme Committee, set up to consider legislative changes to Members of the Scottish Parliament pensions, called for those affected by the scheme, others with an involvement or interest in pensions generally, and the general public to give their views.

25 October: the Parliament's Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee called for views on the general principles of the Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Bill. The bill seeks to abolish graduate endowment for all students who graduated from 1 April 2007 onwards.

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 October 2007 include:

1 October: The Scottish Executive Consolidated Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2007: the Scottish Executive Consolidated Accounts for 2006-2007.

9 October: Scotland's Biodiversity Indicators: a summary document of Scotland's Biodiversity Indicators.

9 October: The Scottish Government's response to the UK Government Consultation on the "Future of Nuclear Power".

15 October: Scrutiny and the Public: Qualitative Study of Public Perspectives on Regulation, Audit, Inspection and Complaints Handling of Public Services in Scotland: document reporting the findings of a qualitative study of public perspectives on external scrutiny of public services, which was commissioned to inform the work of the Independent Scrutiny Review.

23 October: Abolition of the Graduate Endowment Fee - consultation analysis report.

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.

Institute of Governance > Parliament News, issue 68 /october 2007	Enter keyword(s) to search the site