Subordinate Legislation Committee,

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Official Report 111KB pdf

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Delegated Powers Scrutiny

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Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Item 2 is delegated powers scrutiny of the Management of Offenders etc (Scotland) Bill. You will remember that we wrote to the Executive to confirm its intention with regard to consultation on draft orders under sections 2(1), 5(12), 7(2) and 14(1)(b) of the bill. Such orders would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. The Executive has confirmed that, in relation to each power, it intends to consult interested parties before laying a draft order. However, it says that there might be circumstances in which consultation is unnecessary or inappropriate and, accordingly, does not consider that a statutory requirement to consult would be appropriate. Do members agree with those points?

Yes. We were not necessarily asking for the inclusion in the bill of a statutory requirement to consult; we simply asked the Executive to confirm its intention in that regard, which it has done. That is fairly clear and I expect us to find it acceptable.

I now welcome the glut of MSPs who have just walked into the room: Murray Tosh and Adam Ingram.

We are feeling enormously flattered by the warmth and finesse of your welcome, convener.

I agree with Stewart Maxwell. The point that we made last week was not a demand for a statutory requirement for consultation in the bill; we were simply inviting the Executive to address an issue that I am sure it must have thought we would raise and which might have been made clearer to us at the outset. I agree that we should be happy enough with the response.

You will also note that the Executive's response provides more explanation about sections 7(2) and 7(3). We will report on the basis that members are content with the response.