LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMME 2005

(Scottish Executive)

 

On 6 September 2005 Jack McConnell set out the Executive’s legislative programme until the next Scottish Parliament elections in April 2007. The First Minister said that the programme of 19 proposed Bills is intended

·         for justice and respect;

·         to ensure no child is left behind or held back;

·         for health improvement;

·         and for growing economic prosperity for all of Scotland to share.

1.    Adoption Bill

Existing legislation is over 25 years old and needs to be modernised as the number of adoption applications is falling and there is an unmet need for families to adopt children. Key proposals include replacing existing court orders with a single Permanence Order so that children can get long term stability even if they do not wish to be adopted; allowing joint adoption by unmarried couples (including same-sex couples) and fostering by same-sex couples; better adoption support services for people affected by adoption and improved support for foster carers. The Executive believe the proposals would clarify the current legal situation and widen the pool of potential adopters. A briefing paper is available from SCPO on these proposals.

2.    Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill

Introduced to Parliament on 5 October 2005; it is likely that the Environment and Rural Development will scrutinise the general principles of the Bill. The Bill is designed "to bring animal welfare legislation into the 21st century, making no place for animal cruelty in Scotland". It will (a) enhance the Executive’s ability to respond to disease threats; (b) introduce a "duty of care" for protected animals; (c) provide proportionate and enforceable sanctions against animal cruelty and neglect; and (d) introduce a general prohibition on "mutilation" of animals for cosmetic purposes. Owners who fail to care for their pets properly could face up to six months in prison and fines of up to £5,000. The Bill will also make it illegal to sell animals to young people under the age of sixteen and to offer animals as prizes.

3.    Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill

This Bill is about ensuring that the impact of the Scottish fishing and fish farming industries on the environment is sustainable but allowing them to "continue to play a significant role in Scotland's economy". Measures will include (a) improving the regulation of freshwater fisheries; (b) strengthening the conservation of wild fish stocks; (c) controlling sea lice; (d) reducing escapes from fish farms; and (e) powers to support relocation of badly sited farms.

4.    Bankruptcy and Diligence Etc (Scotland) Bill

The purpose of this Bill is to modernise the laws of bankruptcy and diligence. It aims to strike a "better balance" between supporting business risk and protecting the rights of creditors and debtors. Amongst other things, the Executive say the Bill will provide for effective recovery of debts from ‘won't pays', but give 'could pays' the time and help they need to get back on their feet, and 'can't pays' better access to the debt relief they need to start over again. Allan Wilson has said that the Bill will introduce a protected minimum balance which will be free from arrestment when funds in a bank and similar accounts are arrested. New forms of debt recovery effective for use against assets difficult to get at, including land and intellectual rights will also be introduced. Creditors will be given more and better information about the assets of the debtor, including an information disclosure scheme for relevant details held by government and other bodies. It is also proposed that the discharge period of bankrupts will be reduced from three years to one year. A Working Group report was published in the summer with proposals for tackling the problems of debtors with no income and no assets, but it is not yet clear whether the proposals in this report will be incorporated in the Bill or again be shelved.

5.    Children's Hearings and Integrated Services Bill

The Bill intends to improve services to children and the Children's Hearings system by placing the child at the heart of children’s services, reducing paperwork and speeding up the process. A duty will be placed on agencies to work and plan together, particularly for persistent youth offending - "meet persistence with persistence". Phase 1 of the review of Children's Hearings was carried out in 2004 and over summer 2005 the Executive published a consultation paper outlining their proposals to deal with young people who repeatedly commit crimes and the modernisation of the hearings system and children’s services. Proposals in the consultation paper included making some young offenders face up to their victims (restorative justice) and holding children’s hearings outwith school hours.

6.    Crofting Reform Bill

The Executive published in March 2005 a draft Crofting Reform Bill which intends to update, simplify and extend existing crofting legislation. Key proposals include giving the Crofters Commission power to deal with neglect of crofts; the creation of new crofts; removing the requirement that grants to crofter should be linked to agricultural production; minimising the impact of absent and uncooperative landlords and extending new rights to unmarried partners of crofters and redefining the crofter’s family for purposes of succession. The Executive have tried to reassure worried crofters that the Bill does not contain a provision allowing croft tenancies to be sold on the free market for housing; every assignation of a croft will be subject to the consent of the Crofters Commission, on criteria of the effect on the interests of either the estate, the public or the local crofting community.

7.    Health Promotion, Nutrition and Schools (Scotland) Bill

The proposals in this Bill will build on the Executive’s Hungry for Success programme, designed to improve the quality, attractiveness and nutritional value of schools meals. By putting the Hungry for Success nutritional standards on a statutory footing, the Executive are "effectively restricting the food on sale in schools to healthy options". Local authorities will have a duty to promote uptake of school meals and to ensure that the school environment is health-promoting. (A Bill to introduce Free Nutritional School Meals for all Primary School Children is likely to be tabled by Frances Curran of the SSP.)

8.    Judicial Appointments and Removal (Scotland) Bill

The Bill will place the independent Judicial Appointments Board on a statutory basis and  "reinforce the Executive's commitment to an open and fair selection system for appointment to the office of Sheriff, Sheriff Principal and Judge of the Court of Session". The Bill will confirm that the Judicial Appointments Board membership must be an equal mix of lay people and legally qualified members.

9.    Legal Assistance and Legal Profession (Scotland) Bill

The detailed contents of the Bill will be considered by Ministers "in the light of the responses to major consultation exercises on the handling of complaints against lawyers and the provision of publicly-funded legal advice and assistance". The Bill will also include other measures to do with legal assistance and the legal profession.

10.   Local Government (Electoral Administration and Registration Services) Bill

The proposals for amending many aspects of electoral law have emerged from a series of studies and consultations carried out by the independent Electoral Commission. The Bill will modernise elections and improve the security of absent voting; it will also give notification of births, deaths and marriages to central and local government departments and third parties. Marriage preliminaries will also be changed, including the placing of public notices of forthcoming marriages on an all-Scotland website, in addition to local registration office notice boards.

11.   Planning (Scotland) Bill

This Bill aims to make planning "more efficient and fairer". It is intended to ensure that the views of local people are listened to and taken into account, as well as making it easier for people to get involved in shaping the future of their communities. The proposed legislation also intends that planning should promote sustainable growth. In June this year, the Executive published a white paper on "Modernising the Planning System", which proposed new procedures for dealing differently with developments depending on whether they are of national, major, local or minor significance. Special procedures will be put in place so that major applications are processed with efficiency; many local applications will be devolved to the local level. The white paper did not include third party right of appeal, and the Bill is not expected to do so.

12.    Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill

Introduced to Parliament 30 September 2005; the Justice 2 Committee has been assigned as the lead committee and has issued a call for evidence on the general principles of this Bill. The Bill introduces a new range of measures "to support the police in the fight against crime". Tackling knife crime is a key objective of the proposed legislation and new measures have been introduced, including doubling the maximum penalty for carrying a knife in public from two to four years. The Bill also introduces Football Banning Orders to ban individuals involved in football related violence, disorder, racism and sectarianism from matches at home and abroad; it reforms the law on marches and parades and gives police the power to require a person to divulge their date and place of birth. Mandatory drug testing upon arrest will also be introduced for anyone aged 16 and over who is suspected of a drugs related offence. A Police Complaints Commissioner will be established to investigate non-criminal complaints against the police.

13.    Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights Bill

Introduced to Parliament on 7 October; the Justice 1 Committee has issued a call for evidence on the general principles of this Bill. It will establish an independent and statutory Scottish Human Rights Commissioner (accountable to the Scottish Parliament) whose general duty will be to promote respect and understanding for human rights. In particular, the Commissioner will encourage best practice in relation to human rights and will monitor the policies and practices of public authorities, to encourage them to comply with human rights legislation. The Commissioner will be able to choose which general issues to investigate and report on (but not individual cases). (S)he will be able to liaise with the proposed UK Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), to be created by the Equality Bill at Westminster (which states that the CEHR will not be able to act on human rights in relation to matters that are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, unless it has the consent of the Scottish Commissioner for Human Rights).

14.     Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill

Introduced 28 September 2005; the Education Committee has issued a call for evidence on the general principles of this Bill. The Bill aims to "achieve stronger, more inclusive and effective parental involvement in all aspects of education". Parents will be allowed to choose the best system of parental representation for their school, whether that is something akin to the old school boards or a brand new body. Some of the main provisions will include a new statutory duty on education authorities to promote parental involvement and to prepare strategies for parental involvement. Parents will also be given a new right to request and receive advice and information on any matter relating to their own child’s education. The First Minister has argued that the new parent bodies created under the Bill will have more power than the old school boards, because for the first time parents will have the right to request inspectors to come in when the local authority or school has let them down.

15.     Sentencing Bill

The Sentencing Bill is a further stage of the Executive’s "Supporting Safer, Stronger Communities" criminal justice plan. It will criminalise kerb-crawling; implement the outcome of the consultation on extreme pornography and bring forward any legislation needed to improve how the Executive deals with hate crime. It may also take forward legislation on knives arising from the current consultation on the restriction of the sale of knives and swords.

16.     Summary Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill

The Bill will reform summary criminal justice (the lower level of criminal courts in Scotland, where cases are heard before a judge without a jury). Proposals include (a) allowing decisions about fine collection to be determined administratively; (b) providing prosecutors with more options for dealing with minor offences; (c) increasing the sentencing powers of sheriffs sitting summarily to a maximum 12 months imprisonment and £10,000 fine; and (d) making it more difficult for accused who fail to appear at court, by widening the range of circumstances in which they can be tried in their absence.

17.     Tourism (Scotland) Bill

The Executive plan to introduce a short Tourism Bill  in March 2006.  The Bill will wind up Area Tourist Boards and is intended to enable VisitScotland to become a single legal entity. The Executive believe it will provide more financial stability for tourism support in Scotland. Tourism is Everyone’s Business was published for consultation on 10 October.

18.     Transport and Works (Scotland) Bill

Concerned with the scrutiny of future major rail projects, this will remove the need for Private Bill committees to be established for transport-related proposals and will make more information available to objectors.

19.    Vulnerable Adults Bill

If the outcome of the (third) consultation just ended supports legislation, the Executive will introduce a Vulnerable Adults Bill "when a suitable opportunity arises". The Bill would hope to plug gaps in existing legislation and help agencies to work together to provide better support to protect vulnerable adults from abuse of any kind. It will create a list of those who are unsuitable to work with vulnerable adults and is designed to ensure that they get the same level of protection as children; it would also introduce a right of entry to settings where abuse of adults is thought to be taking place.