Justice 2 Committee, 05 Dec 2006
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Official Report
109KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Office or Body as Specified Authority) (Scottish Legal Complaints Commission) Order 2006 (Draft)
Good afternoon and welcome to the 34th meeting in 2006 of the Justice 2 Committee. I ask everybody to switch off mobile phones, pagers and anything else that goes "ping".
The first three items of business concern affirmative Scottish statutory instruments. I welcome the Deputy Minister for Justice, Johann Lamont, and her officials: Louise Miller, Helena Janssen, Gillian Mawdsley and Phil Burns.
I invite the minister to speak to the first SSI—the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Office or Body as Specified Authority) (Scottish Legal Complaints Commission) Order 2006.
Thank you, convener. Schedule 4 to the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill makes provision for the Scottish legal complaints commission, which the bill will establish, to be regulated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland. However, the provision cannot have effect until the legislation is brought into force and the new body comes into being, which would mean that the commissioner could not take part in the process of overseeing the first round of appointments to the Scottish legal complaints commission.
Section 3(3) of the Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc (Scotland) Act 2003 contains an order-making power that caters exactly for these circumstances. A section 3(3) order provides for a body that is in the process of being established to be treated for the purposes of appointments to that body as if it were one of the specified bodies that fall within the commissioner's jurisdiction. The draft order before the committee today would allow the commissioner to regulate the process for appointments to the new body before it is formally established. I invite the committee to agree that the draft order should be approved by the Parliament.
As no member wishes to question the minister and her officials, I invite the minister to move motion S2M-5210.
Motion moved,
That the Justice 2 Committee recommends that the draft Public Appointments and Public Bodies etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 (Treatment of Office or Body as Specified Authority) (Scottish Legal Complaints Commission) Order 2006 be approved.—[Johann Lamont.]
Motion agreed to.
Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) (Prescribed Proceedings) Amendment Regulations 2006 (Draft)<br />Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2006 (Draft)
I invite the minister to speak to the draft regulations.
Would it be helpful if I spoke to both sets of draft regulations at the same time?
That is fine.
The central purpose of the two sets of draft regulations is to ensure that access to justice is provided by extending legal aid provision through assistance by way of representation to the variation and termination of football banning orders. Both sets of regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.
I will deal first with the draft Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2006. Football banning orders were introduced under chapter 1 of part 2 of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006. The 2006 act provided for a number of proceedings, where all civil and most criminal proceedings are already covered by the existing legal aid provisions. However, variation or termination of football banning orders arising as additions or alternatives to criminal conviction were not covered by existing legal aid provisions. The draft regulations make that legal aid provision.
We have taken the opportunity to include two further changes in the draft regulations. The first provides that ABWOR is available for proceedings before the pensions regulator tribunal, which was established under the Pensions Act 2004. The pensions regulator replaced the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority in April 2005 and is primarily concerned with protecting the benefits of members of work-based pension schemes. The second change ensures that the draft regulations update references to proceedings under part IV of the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 1993 (SI 1993/2225) so that they refer to the current rules, the Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 (SSI 2001/315).
The draft Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) (Prescribed Proceedings) Amendment Regulations 2006 clarify that assistance by way of representation is the appropriate form of legal aid for applications to vary or terminate football banning orders and, as such, will be the only form of legal aid made available for such applications.
As no member wishes to question the minister on either set of draft regulations, I invite her to move motions S2M-5209 and S2M-5208.
Motions moved,
That the Justice 2 Committee recommends that the draft Criminal Legal Aid (Scotland) (Prescribed Proceedings) Amendment Regulations 2006 be approved.
That the Justice 2 Committee recommends that the draft Advice and Assistance (Assistance by Way of Representation) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2006 be approved.—[Johann Lamont.]
Motions agreed to.
I thank the minister and her colleagues for coming this afternoon.