Issue 11 - October 2001
Events
Parliament was in recess from October 8 to October 22 to coincide with school holidays in Scotland.
1 October: Susan Deacon, Minister for Health, announced that the 15 new unified NHS Boards were now fully functioning, replacing the 43 separate boards and trusts.
5 October: the full detailed list of expenses claimed by MSPs over the past year was published showing a total of £6.8 million.
8 October: The First Minister, Henry McLeish, voiced his support for action taken by the International Coalition against terrorism, stating that the Prime Minister spoke for the whole of the UK when he said British forces would be deployed because the Taliban had sided with terror, not justice. Mr McLeish's statement follows on from the report unveiled on 5 October Building for the Long Term: Understanding the Impact of the Terrorist Attacks on the Scottish Economy which was prepared to assess the implications for the economy of the events of September 11.
11 October: Henry McLeish unveiled details of a scholarship scheme to honour the memory of Donald Dewar.
12 October: the Scottish Executive's request for £20m from Westminster to contribute to the cost of free personal care for the elderly was rejected. The Scottish Executive is to pursue this issue.
13 October: the Scottish Executive announced that early next year Jack McConnell, Minister for Education, will launch a national debate on the future of education. They will no longer be publishing a green paper on education as originally proposed by Sam Galbraith, the former Minister for Education. The Parliament's Education, Sport and Culture Committee will hold its own consultation.
22 October: Sarah Boyack, Minister for Transport announced a £76m package for investment in public transport.
25 October: the Commons Scottish Affairs Committee is to begin an inquiry in January 2002 following concern that the Scottish news and current affairs programmes concentrate too much on Scotland with reduced coverage of events in Westminster.
26 October: Henry McLeish's anniversary after one year in office as First Minister coincided with the unfolding of the affair involving his Commons expenses.
27 October: while answering questions during the launch of the Parliament's second annual report (available on the Parliament's website at www.scottish.parliament.uk/spcb/parlar01-00.htm), Sir David Steel, the Presiding Officer, voiced his concern about the section of the Scotland Act which provides that the number of MSPs should be linked to the number of MPs at Westminster. Since it is probable that the number of MPs will be reduced from 72 to fewer than 60 following a boundaries review, the number of directly elected MSPs would also be reduced. Sir David maintained this would seriously affect the workings of the successful Committee system. An amendment to the Scotland Act would be required to ensure that no reduction in the number of MSPs is made.
October 30: the Lib Dems announced that they are willing to give up their insistence on having a detailed new voting system for Scottish council elections before the end of this Parliament. They stated that they would be prepared to settle for a legally-binding commitment to bring in some form of proportional representation by 2007.
31 October: Jackie Baillie, Minister for Social Justice, announced the creation of the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum which has the aim of helping refugees to integrate into local communities as swiftly and as efficiently as possible.
back
to topSystem Three poll (for The Herald)
(1025 people in 40 constituencies between October 25-31, 2001)
|
Holyrood 1st vote |
Holyrood 2nd vote |
Westminster |
|
|
Lab |
45% |
37% |
54% |
|
SNP |
30% |
29% |
23% |
|
LibDem |
12% |
15% |
10% |
|
Con |
8% |
7% |
9% |
|
SSP |
3% |
6% |
2% |
|
Green |
1% |
4% |
} 1% |
|
Others |
1% |
2% |
Bills
1 October: the Housing (Scotland) 200 Act came into force. The Act enables Scottish Ministers to require local authorities to draw up strategies to prevent and alleviate homelessness in their areas and requires the Scottish Executive to prepare and publish a strategy, in partnership with local authorities, that will tackle fuel poverty.
4 October: the Local Government (Elections) Bill was introduced to Parliament. The Bill proposes to extend local authority terms from three to four years and to combine local government and Scottish Parliamentary elections.
10 October: Jim Wallace, Deputy First Minister, presented a paper at the Convention of Highlands and Islands in Orkney which outlined the results of consultation on the draft Land Reform Bill to be introduced before Parliament later this year. The Bill contains provisions relating to responsible access to the countryside, a right for communities to buy land around them when it comes up for sale and a right for crofting communities to buy their croft land.
12 October: the draft Scottish Qualifications Authority Bill for the proposed reform of the SQA was published and will be issued to schools, colleges, teachers associations and parents groups who will be invited to attend seminars in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness to discuss the proposals.
Committee Reports
3 October: the European Committee published a report recommending that there should be no additional time allowed for the phasing in of the EU Directive on workers' right to consultation on redundancy decisions. The UK and Irish governments are asking for a seven-year phasing in period.
4 October: the Local Government Committee are calling for interested parties to submit their views on the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) (Scotland) Bill which was introduced to Parliament last month by Alex Neil, MSP.
5 October: the Justice Committees issued a joint call for views from interested parties on the general principles of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Bill.
11 October: the Education, Culture and Sport Committee are asking interested parties to submit views on the School Education (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
15 October: the Environment Committee announced its remit for its inquiry into the environmental effects of sea cage fish farming. The Committee will monitor and review, on an ongoing basis, the work of the Scottish Executive and other relevant bodies in relation to aquaculture.
23 October: The Enterprise & Lifelong Learning Committee published a report on the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC), stating that in its opinion, SHEFC profoundly mishandled the Teaching Review and made detailed recommendations, including the setting up of an independent review body to examine the cost of teaching in Scotland's universities. (See also details of the Scottish Executive's intention to carry out a review of Scottish Higher Education below)
30 October: the Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee are to hold a seminar to address the Gypsy Travellers' ethnic minority status.
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:
Scotland: A Global Connections Strategy: plan for the Scottish Executive and the Enterprise Networks to produce a joint Global Connections Strategy for making Scotland the most networked small nation in Europe. 4.10.2001
European Protected Species, Development Sites and the Planning System: Interim guidance for local authorities on licensing arrangement: guidance in cases where European protected species are present on any site subject of a development proposal. 4.10.01
A Smart, Successful Scotland - ambitions for the Enterprise Networks: policy statement providing direction and identifiable priorities for the Networks. 4.10.01
Building for the long Term: Understanding the Impact of the Terrorist Attacks on the Scottish Economy: 5.10.01
Preventing Violence against Women: document setting out action to be taken across the Scottish Executive to tackle problems of violence against women. 8.10.01.
Local Authority Preserved Rights Transfer Data: document showing number of preserved rights cases that each local authority will have responsibility for after April 2002 as announced in the Scottish Executive's Response to the Royal Commission on Long Term Care. 9.10.01
Scottish Higher Education Review - First Consultation Paper: first paper focused on asking questions about the performance of the Scottish Higher Funding Council (SHEFC) and asking for comment on issues. 10.10.01
Data sources for social research in Scotland: results from a scoping study on longitudinal research: report carried out by the National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Scottish Executive to review the data sources available to research users. 17.10.01
Preliminary Report on the Equality Strategy: report of the equality work of the Scottish Executive to date. 18.10.01
Scotland's People: a continuous survey based on a sample of the general population in private residences in Scotland. 23.10.01
Created in Scotland - the way forward for Scottish Manufacturing in the 21st century: document drawn up with a steering group involving manufacturers, business organisations, trade unions and representatives from the higher education sector. 23.10.01
Natural Cultural Strategy: the first report of progress under the Strategy. 25.10.01
Poverty and Social Exclusion in Rural Scotland: report on improving understanding of rural social exclusion in Scotland with recommendations. 30.10.01
Contact
Should you have any comments or enquiries please do not hesitate to contact Margaret MacPherson at the Institute of Governance.
This page was published on 29 October 2008