Round the houses

On the Mound

The First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP, announced on 28th May a number of measures which he will bring to the Scottish Parliament as part of the Executive programme. Looking specifically at legislation the Executive focuses on Health, Education, Criminal Justice, Police and Fire Services.

In the Health area there will be an NHS Reform Bill before the summer recess, this will establish Community Health partnership as the operative mechanism for the delivery of healthcare and provide a new structure for community involvement.  It will also involve powers to Ministers to intervene to secure quality of care.   There will also be a Primary Medical Service Bill which will be introduced in June to provide this statutory framework for GP contracts to be implemented with effect from 1st April 2004.

In Education there will be legislation to provide new powers for Ministers to intervene to ensure that action identified by Inspectors is taken up by Local Authorities.   An Education (School Meals) Bill has also been introduced to ensure that those who are currently entitled to free school meals do not lose that entitlement.

In respect of the Fire Service the Executive have already published a consultation paper on this matter which set out proposals for modernising and updating the Fire Service legislation which dates from 1947.   The Fire Authorities and Fire Brigades will be given a statutory responsibility for fire prevention and community fire service work.

The Executive also plan to legislate in the area of the environment, a Bill will be introduced to provide for strategic environmental assessment and legislation will also be brought forward to deal with conservation matters. It is expected also that a Water Bill will also come forward later in the year following a consultation period.

Another Bill which the Executive intends to bring forward will be a Gaelic Language Bill to secure the status for Gaelic in Law. The legislation forms part of an Executive plan to introduce a national strategy to guide the development and support of Scotland’s languages including British Sign Language and Ethnic Community Languages.

A measure which is likely to be controversial will be the Local Government’s Bill which will be introduced before the next Local Government Election and will introduce proportional representation by the single transferable vote system. This is likely to be strongly debated in the Parliament.

On Crime the Executive intend to bring forward a Court Reform Bill which will implement some proposals made by Lord Bonomy in his review entitled “Improving practice: 2002 Review of the Practices and Procedure of the High Court of Justiciary”.

A statutory sentencing commission is envisaged which will deal with consistency, appropriateness and effectiveness in sentencing across Scotland.

Following the Executive’s commitment to support Vulnerable Witnesses, new statutory protections will be brought forward including an automatic special provision for children under 16 and improved support for victims and witnesses.

There will also be proposals on Anti-Social Behaviour which the Executive intend to introduce as a Bill in the Autumn. The Anti-Social Behaviour Bill will include:-

1. new Anti-Social Behaviour Orders for under-16s
2. community reparation orders
3. powers for the courts to make civil orders requiring parents best interests of their children, and with appropriate sanctions
4. the introduction of electronic monitoring for children
5. banning the sale of spray paint to under 16s
6. giving local authorities additional powers to tackle nuisances such as fly tipping, noise and graffiti

Other house-keeping measures such as the Budget Bill will also follow on.

In Westminster

Notwithstanding the reshuffle and doubt about the deep constitutional issues such as the position of the Lord Chancellor, the position of the Secretary of State for Scotland and the creation of a Supreme Court there is a lot of legislation going through Westminster which has an impact on Scotland.   The most notable measures are the Crime (International Co-operation) Bill which deals with mutual assistance in criminal matters by implementing the Schengen Convention and the evidence freezing provisions of the framework decision on the execution of the EU of orders freezing property and evidence.   The Bill also implements the EU framework decision in combating terrorism 2002, the EU convention on driving disqualification 1998 and a number of additional measures set out in the Schengen Convention in the area of police co-operation.  Part 4 of the Bill also contains provisions which implement the EU framework decision on non cash means of payment and in particular it puts on a statutory footing the crime of uttering forged money in Scotland. [The Criminal Justice Bill which has only a few sections relating to Scotland, these are 66 and 67, 76, 131 and Schedule A, Schedule 10, 288, Part 14, Schedule 3 and Schedule 23].  The Extradition
Bill which carries forward proposals to reform the law in extradition as consulted upon in “The Law on Extradition: A Review” in March 2001.

That consultation was the outcome of an exercise started in 1997 to consider the legislative requirements of 2 European Union Conventions on Extradition, however, it developed into a much more extensive enquiry following the adoption of the Tampere Special European Council in October 1999.  The Bill makes provision for new extradition procedures, the main proposals of which are: (a) a system where each of the UK’s extradition partners is in one or two categories.  The categories are designated by orders in Council and it will be possible for a country to move from one category to another where appropriate depending upon the extradition procedures that the UK negotiates which with each extradition partner (2) the adoption of the framework decision on the European arrest want creating a fast track extradition arrangement with EU members and Gibraltar (3) retention of the current arrangements for extradition with non EU members (4) simplification of the rules governing the authentication of foreign document (5) the abolition of the requirement to provide prima facia evidence in certain cases and (6) a simplified avenue of appeal.

There are also the following Bills:

1) The Fireworks Bill is a Private Members Bill, which seeks to regulate the sale of fireworks.

2) The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards Bill) which by and large does not apply in Scotland except in relation to the recovery of medical and ambulance costs where compensation payments are made to an injured party.

3) The Finance Bill has particular importance for Scottish Conveyance in relation to the Stamp Duty Land Tax.   The Society has given evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the Bill and has written to the Chancellor in an effort to bring these changes into conformity with Scottish Conveyancing practice.

4) The Sexual Offences Bill will have impact on the treatment of sexual offenders in relation to notification requirements.

Across the Channel

Lastly, in Brussels two items of major significance have occurred in the last month. Firstly, the publication of the European Convention or Constitutional Treaty which has, of course, considerable implications for the future of Europe.  The text of the convention can be viewed at www.european-convention.eu.int The European Commission has also made proposals for allowing a liberal market in legal services which have been put forward to GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services).  This too will have wide ranging implications for the provision of legal services and the possibility of competition between legal service providers from Europe and abroad.          
If you would like further information on any of these topics or other Law Reform issues please contact: Michael P Clancy at the Society.