Care Service Bill powers "unacceptable", MSPs claim
An "unacceptable" level of powers is set to be delegated to ministers in the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, a Holyrood committee has reported.
In its stage 1 report on the bill, a majority on the Scottish Parliament's Delegated Powers & Law Reform Committee conclude that the measure "risks setting a dangerous precedent, undermining the role of the Parliament".
Their concern centres on the bill's use of delegated powers instead of primary legislation to introduce "core and as yet unknown provisions" about how the proposed new National Care Service will operate. This, they state, "significantly reduces the threshold for parliamentary approval and prevents MSPs from bringing forward detailed amendments".
The Scottish Government is taking a new approach to this legislation, which it is terming "co-design". It intends the bill to creates a framework for the National Care Service, but leaving space for the detail to be worked through during co-design with those who have lived experience of the social care system, and flexibility for the service to develop and evolve over time.
The minister giving evidence to the committee claimed that although others had argued that the co-design could have preceded the legislation, "that would have impinged on the folk who would have been involved in the co-design. The co-design work might have gone to waste, in people’s eyes, if Parliament then changed far too much of what the folks who helped us with the design wanted in place".
However the committee concluded that it was "unable meaningfully to report on the provisions and delegated powers of the bill as it stands", and "strongly refutes the suggestion that full parliamentary scrutiny presents a barrier to collaborative working". It "does not believe the bill should progress in its current form".
The two SNP members on the committee dissented, stating: "We note that the concept of co-design is a new approach and the reasons that the Scottish Government has set out to justify its use in this instance. We are content with the general approach taken in respect of this bill and are therefore content with the delegation of the powers in principle."
The lead committee on the bill, the Health & Social Care Committee, has still to produce its report.