Contents
- Attendance
- Decisions on Taking Business in Private
- School Infrastructure
- Subordinate Legislation
Subordinate Legislation
Education (Fees and Student Support) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/180)
Welfare Reform (Consequential Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/182)
The next item of business is consideration of two negative instruments. Do members have comments on either of the instruments?
I want to flag up some concerns that are partly about the process. On SSI 2017/180, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has expressed its
“disappointment that fuller supporting documentation or an impact assessment was not supplied”
and its “concern” that a consultation was not held. On SSI 2017/182, the committee was concerned about the use of powers. It has also expressed concerns about the way in which the Scottish Government is taking the policies forward.
The instruments both deal with big issues: student loans and free school meals. What power is held by the body that is given the responsibility to scrutinise and report back on secondary legislation? What weight does its work have if the Scottish Government simply says, “We do not agree with you”, and then the legislation comes to this committee to be dealt with as a negative instrument? We do not have any further information. I know that it has been complicated even to establish what the instruments do. For me that raises a question. If the DPLRC is flagging up something significant to us, what is supposed to happen as a consequence?
We have a number of options. We could just note the concerns and leave matters there. Another option is to write to the Scottish Government. Given that we are going into recess, so there will be a period before the next meeting, and that the instrument has to be dealt with within 40 days, we could write to Scottish Government officials asking for a further explanation as to why they disagree with the points that were made by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. We could then consider the response over recess and decide by correspondence whether we need to take any further action. Would Johann Lamont be happy with that?
Yes.
Thank you. If there are no other comments on either of the instruments, that brings us to the end of the public part of the meeting.
Before we go into private session, I would like to say a big thank you to everybody on the committee. You have made my first year as convener a very enjoyable one, if sometimes very tiring and testing—I am not talking about you in particular, Johann. Seriously, thank you very much for all your support. I think that we have done a lot of good work over the past year, and I look forward to continuing with it after the recess. I hope that everyone has a great holiday.
10:51 Meeting continued in private until 11:55.Previous
School Infrastructure