The session from September 2002 until the end of March 2003 will be the last session of the current Scottish Parliament; with the election due in May 2003, there is likely to be more inter-party point scoring than usual but there is also a fair amount of legislative and other business to be dealt with. This briefing looks at the Executive's legislative programme announced by Jack McConnell, along with other legislation currently "in process" or likely.

1. Agricultural Holdings Bill

Building on a draft which has just completed consultation, this brings together land reform and rural and agricultural development agendas. The proposals aim to encourage "new blood and new ideas" in agricultural life by tenancy options which will offer "new opportunities for tenants to manage and use the land they rent flexibly and in diverse ways". Since the Bill reflects consensus between landowning and farming interests, much of it is likely to be uncontroversial but there is heated debate about the likely inclusion of a pre-emptive right to buy for tenant farmers when landowners sell agricultural land.

2. Building Bill

Also claimed as reflecting a commitment to sustainability, this Bill is intended to "make the building control system more responsive to public and industry needs". The main thrust is towards consistency in the application of regulations across Scotland. It will also include new powers for local authorities to act on dangerous buildings.

3. Homelessness Bill

This will bring recommendations for legislation arising from the Homelessness Task Force's final report. It is expected to include recommendations (a) that the categorisation of homeless people as in "priority need" be removed within a decade via a gradual widening of the definition (seen as an extension of rights) (b) replacement of the current duty placed on local authorities to investigate whether an applicant has become homeless intentionally with a discretionary power to do so and replacement of the duty on local authorities to secure intentionally homeless people temporary accommodation with a duty to ensure that such applicants are offered a short Scottish secure tenancy and appropriate support to ensure they can maintain that tenancy (to "encourage a more long-term effort to resolve the problems that underlie cases of intentional homelessness"), and (c) the suspension of the provisions relating to local connection (although the Scottish Parliament would have the power to re-activate these provisions). These proposals have been warmly welcomed by the Scottish Churches Housing Agency, Shelter and CoSLA, though all stress the need for matching resources to make them effective.

4. Mental Health Bill

This Bill has been published in draft form, building on a lengthy process which includes the Millan Committee proposals for a whole new statutory framework for mental health care. Millan recommended that legislation should include provision for people whose health and wellbeing is at risk, protection of vulnerable people from exploitation and abuse, protection of the public from those who may pose a risk to others, provision for decision making on behalf of those who are not able to act on their own behalf, a framework for the provision of appropriate services, arrangements to monitor the quality of such services and promote good practice, and procedures for redress and appeal for those who are dissatisfied with their care. Although there is broad consensus built up over these consultations, there have been some concerns raised about aspects of the compulsory care provisions of the draft Bill.

5. Protection of Children Bill

Promised for autumn 2002 as repaying "a debt that we owe to the people of Dunblane", this Bill will establish an index of adults unsuitable for working with children – in youth organisations, education, leisure and care services – and will exclude them from doing so. It is part of an ongoing process of child protection in which the churches have played a significant and ongoing part.

6. Budget Bill

There will also be the annual Budget Bill for 2003-04, again the subject of a consultation process which Parliament's Finance Committee has welcomed as much more accessible than in previous years.

1. Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill

See SCPO Briefing Paper 4/5; this is currently at Stage 1 with the Justice 2 Committee having heard evidence and likely to publish a Stage 1 report shortly after the recess. Donald Gorrie will table amendments to this Bill to make religious hatred and sectarianism aggravating factors in existing offences.

2. Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Bill

This replaces poindings and warrant sales with "exceptional attachment orders" and makes provision for a debt arrangement scheme (although the detail of this is still under consultation); a "Debt on our Doorstep" submission on this Bill is available from SCPO. The Social Justice Committee, which declined to hear evidence from people with personal experience of debt problems, should complete its Stage 1 report in the early autumn.

3. Dog Fouling (Scotland) Bill

Evidence on this Member's Bill (by Keith Harding) will be heard by the Local Government Committee at the end of October. However, Jack McConnell offered to work with any MSPs who had ideas to offer on "issues that plague the lives of people across Scotland": including vandalism, graffiti, neighbourhood disputes and litter on their streets (building on this Member's Bill and others which had been suggested on litter, etc).

4. Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

Discussed in its draft form in SCPO Briefing Paper 3/9, this covers rights of responsible access, community right to buy and a crofting community right to buy. This is currently being examined in detail, and amended, by the Justice 2 Committee at Stage 2.

5. Local Government in Scotland Bill

This Bill, currently before the Local Government Committee at Stage 1, seeks to tackle disenchantment with local democracy by giving councils a power of general competence or "well-being" – a "can-do power to promote and improve the well-being of their area as long as it is not restricted by legislation"; the Bill also provides a statutory basis for Community Planning (in which councils will work with community and other bodies to plan and deliver services) and creates a duty of "best value" (which has already replaced compulsory competitive tendering as the key principle in service delivery, monitored by the Accounts Commission).

6. Proportional Representation (Local Government Elections) (Scotland) Bill

This was lodged by the Tricia Marwick of the SNP just before the recess, mainly with the aim of exploiting tensions in the Executive coalition on proportional representation. In May, the First Minister said "After the summer we will set out our intentions in relation to legislation and the future governance of local authorities"; but this will not lead to legislation before the Parliamentary election.

7. Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Bill

The Local Government Committee is currently hearing evidence on this Bill which will establish a Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland "to oversee the public appointment system and promote diversity in public appointments"; it will also abolish six quangos.

8. Robin Rigg Offshore Wind Farm (Navigation and Fishing) (Scotland) Bill

This is the Parliament's first Private Bill, introduced on 27 June. "Private Bills are brought forward by outside individuals or organisations who seek Parliament's legal approval to carry out a specific function" In this case) the outside promoters (TXU Energi) seek Parliament's approval to curtail navigation and fishing rights in and around a new wind farm in the Solway Firth, which proposes to have sixty wind turbines located in offshore waters; the Bill is also seeking to apply exclusion zones around the Wind Farm. Private Bills have their own distinct procedure and a Private Bill Committee of 5 MSPs (from outwith the affected area) will be set up to consider and report to the Parliament on the Bill.

9. Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill

This Bill aims to "achieve greater clarity in property law and reduce the number of outdated conditions on land by making it easier to discharge or vary them". It will complete the abolition of feudal land tenure in Scotland and provide a modern and simplified framework for property ownership in Scotland. The Justice 1 Committee will start hearing evidence on this in September.

10. Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Scotland) Bill

Nicola Sturgeon's Member's Bill to ban tobacco advertising (by) was discussed by the Health and Community Care Committee on 20 March, but has made no progress since then. It may be overtaken by UK legislation in Westminster.

11. Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Bill

The Transport and the Environment Committee will hear evidence on this Bill after the recess

1. Prostitute Tolerance Zones Bill

Margo MacDonald, having completed consultation on this Bill (which would enable local authorities to designate areas within their boundaries inside which it would be legal to solicit), is now finalising drafting and will table the Bill immediately after the recess

2. Commissioner for Children and Young People Bill

The Education Culture and Sport Committee have been discussing this for some time and have recently produced a report outlining the case for such a Committee Bill. The primary role of the Commissioner will be to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people. In doing so, the Commissioner will have regard to the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is intended that the Bill will establish the office of Commissioner and provide for the detail of the fundamentals of the post, including the Commissioner's powers, remit etc. They hope to have a Bill discussed next session; with Executive support this is likely to be passed.

1. Family Law

A White Paper two years ago proposed a package of changes to family law on (a) parental responsibilities and rights for unmarried fathers and for step-parents (b) matrimonial interdicts (domestic abuse) (c) quicker divorces (d) a strategy for supporting "families in transition" (mediation services) (e) some "tidying up" of marriage law (f) financial provision for cohabitants. A draft Bill is promised which will take some of these proposals forward in light of the earlier consultation responses and will also include any additional legislative provision needed in light of the Executive's – still ongoing – adoption review; it will appear "when our approach to these areas is fully co-ordinated".

2. Nature Conservation

Jack McConnell promised to bring forward a draft Bill on nature conservation for consultation in the spring of next year, although provisions to tackle wildlife crime will be inserted in the current Criminal Justice Bill.

3. Crofting Reform

This White Paper, with a modernised legal framework for crofting, has now been published for consultation, including "the empowerment of individual crofters and the removal of restrictive bureaucracy"; concern has been expressed that these mean a two-tier crofting with new crofters not enjoying the same rights as existing crofters

4. Health Reform

Following the commitment to a massive increase in health spending, a White Paper is promised "to ensure that major investment produces maximum benefit" by putting "flexibility, choice and primary care at the centre of our health service".

5. Children with Additional Support Needs

The Executive are developing proposals to improve the provision of education services for children with additional support needs, "closing the opportunity gap in a very real and tangible way". Consultations are under way on this with those who need additional educational support and with those who provide it.

6. Planning

A White Paper on Planning will build on recent consultations, "to make public involvement more meaningful".

Allowing for the volume of business carried forward for completion after the recess, there is a great deal of business to fill the Parliament's last lap. Issues like Margo MacDonald's Bill on prostitute tolerance zones and the Children's Commissioner proposal represent a great deal of commitment by MSPs who will be keen to "make a difference" before an election may deprive them of the chance in future. On the other hand, party lines will be determined by careful positioning in the lead up to the election, and the Executive may be reluctant to provoke any backlash (eg on family law reform) so close to an election.

The Debt Bill will provide controversy, as will aspects of the Criminal Justice Bill; the Homelessness Bill looks like marking a significant step forward on an issue in which the churches have a major stake. But the media reaction to the six new Bills proposed was one of almost universal disappointment, even from a sympathetic commentator like Iain Macwhirter, who said "to call the programme a hotchpotch is an insult to stews", while Scotland on Sunday complained of a "leadership vacuum".

But the First Minister claimed to be making laws not to capture headlines but to improve lives; that rootedness in making a difference (rather than grand schemes that have more spin than substance) and the new humility about what can be done (and doing it well) are positive signs – as was the commitment to work together across party lines on "street" issues, however easily that was trivialised into a "cross-party consultation on bins". The Biblical perspective is that nations (and their Parliaments and people) are judged by their response to the homeless, welcome for the stranger and care for the vulnerable.

Although the Executive still talk of social justice as a necessary step towards the "smart successful Scotland" that appears to be their key objective, the Parliament and Executive continue to seem distrustful of the "vision thing" which might do more than capture public imagination. Perhaps the theological context for considering the whole range of legislation on next year's agenda should be "where there is no vision, the people perish".

With an eye towards the election, churches will rightly scrutinise what has (or has not) been achieved, but will also be concerned about wider disenchantment with a process in which we all have a stake.