At its meeting on 15 September 2020, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the delegated powers provisions in the Travelling Funfairs (Licensing) (Scotland) Bill ("the Bill") at Stage 1.

The Committee submits this report to the lead Committee for the Bill under Rule 9.6.2 of the Standing Orders.

The Member in Charge has provided the Parliament with a memorandum on the delegated powers provisions in the Bill.

This Member's Bill was introduced by Richard Lyle MSP on 29 April 2020. The lead committee is the Local Government and Communities Committee.

The Bill seeks to reduce burdens on the operators of travelling funfairs presented by the current licensing regime and thereby improve the financial viability of such businesses.

The Bill proposes to achieve this by:

1. removing travelling funfairs from the public entertainment licensing regime under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 to which they are currently subject, and

2. establishing a new licensing regime for travelling funfairs, which is set out in the Bill.

The Bill confers one power to make subordinate legislation on the Scottish Ministers. The Member has prepared a Delegated Powers Memorandum (“DPM”) which sets out the reason for taking the delegated power in the Bill and the parliamentary scrutiny procedure that has been chosen.

Section 5(6) gives the Scottish Ministers power to amend the £50 application fee for making an application for a licence under the Bill, to take account of inflation.

When fees are prescribed in primary legislation, the Committee accepts that it is standard practice to make provision for uprating to allow for inflation.

The Committee noted that the power is expressed as allowing Scottish Minsters to “substitute for the amount of the application fee such other amount as they think appropriate but only in order to take account of changes in the value of money.” The Committee questioned which measure of inflation would be used and would be grateful if the Member in Charge could confirm.