Subordinate Legislation Committee, 21 Nov 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 21, 2000

Official Report 111KB pdf

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Education (National Priorities) (Scotland) Order 2000 (SSI 2000/draft)

Various points were raised about the order and various responses have come back, including the definition of "lesser used".

The more that we look into the draft order, the worse it gets. The explanations add to the confusion. I am not quite sure where we go with the matter. As a former member of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee, which helped to steer the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc Act 2000 through Parliament, I think that the order is so important to the act that we should draw it to the attention of the Parliament and the lead committee that the order will not achieve what was hoped from the act. We must also bring it to the Executive's attention that it cannot use woolly language such as "lesser used languages", even for aspirational priorities, because you ain't gonna reach anything.

I am in favour of that. I would not mind being a fly on the wall when the order is considered by the lead committee.

We should also refer the order to the lead committee on the ground of insufficient specification of enabling powers and remind the Executive that it is correct practice to include a specific reference to enabling powers. We will also draw the defective drafting of article 3 to the attention of Parliament and the lead committee.