Justice 1 Committee, 09 Feb 2005

Meeting date: Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Official Report 120KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Prescribed Police Stations) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/9)

Agenda item 3 is subordinate legislation. I refer members to the note that has been prepared by the clerk, which sets out the background to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Prescribed Police Stations) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/9). The instrument is subject to the negative procedure. Do members wish to make any comments on the instrument or do they simply wish to note it?

I consulted the constituency member for the area concerned and he is content. Therefore, I am also content.

Okay.

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Part 1 Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003: Draft Guidance for Local Authorities and National Park Authorities (SE/2005/14)

I refer members to a note that was prepared by the clerks, which sets out the background to the Part 1 Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003: Draft Guidance for Local Authorities and National Park Authorities (SE/2005/14). We have received further correspondence from the Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development, which is attached to the note. Members will know that this is the second time that we have had the draft guidance in front of us. Do members wish to comment on it?

The Executive has responded appropriately, but I want to make an observation on funding. We have a breakdown, and it is slightly ironic that Glasgow appears to have £758,000 in 2005-06 for core paths whereas Aberdeenshire, which includes most of Grampian's prime walking area, will get £285,000, which is around a quarter of that. That is more an issue to do with how the funding formulae for local government work. The Executive should reconsider that matter in another context.

Members will notice that the intention is to review the guidance, which we wanted to ensure. That is helpful. The guidance under the act does not meet our expectations in toto and we thought that it was important to complete it. We have made it clear that we expect the guidance to be reviewed.

Do we have any indication from the minister of whether the funds have been separately identified within local authorities' budgets?

A table is attached to the correspondence. Stewart Stevenson was referring to that table when he mentioned the Glasgow and Aberdeenshire figures.

My reading of the table is that the answer to Bruce McFee's question would be no. In providing the figures of £2.5 million, £4.7 million and £6.5 million over 2001-04, the Executive is saying that it has distributed that money pro rata as an identical increment on each council's allocation, but it has not ring fenced the funding or identified it in any way. According to the letter, the funding has been reverse engineered.

That is what I was asking. I wanted to know whether the question had been answered specifically as opposed to us having to draw the information out of the tables. I would not necessarily argue for ring fencing. The original correspondence from Perth and Kinross Council suggested that there had been no indication that a specific amount had been granted by the Scottish Executive to cover the obligations. The minister indicated that separate amounts had been identified to the local authority and I asked him whether he wanted to reconsider that answer and come back to us. Do I take it that what we have in front of us is the minister coming back to us and not saying yes?

That is my presumption and it is why we got the letter today. You might not be content with that, but it is your answer.

I just wanted to get the explanation from the minister. The explanation that the committee was given at the time was not correct.

Whether it is in this committee or another, I am pretty certain that we will come back to the issue of the core path network. I believe that the access code will be launched today.

I think that it was launched yesterday in East Lothian.

I think that something is going on today as well. However, I am sure that the issue of the core path network will stay live for many months to come.

Our next agenda item is on family law reform. As members agreed earlier, we will take the item in private.

Meeting continued in private until 13:39.