Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Official Report
271KB pdf
Instrument subject to Negative Procedure
Health Boards (Membership) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/334)
Regulation 5 revives the Health Boards (Membership and Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (SSI 2001/302) as they existed immediately before being amended by the Health Boards (Membership) (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (SSI 2009/302), in respect only of Fife Health Board and Dumfries and Galloway Health Board. An effect of that is the revival of various outdated and repealed provisions on the circumstances in which a health board member is disqualified from being such a member, which are contained in regulation 6 of the 2001 regulations.
The Scottish Government has confirmed that that revival of outdated provisions is intended, in the interests of consistency with the position for the other regional health boards, but the committee may consider that it is not satisfactory in principle that an instrument that is laid in the Parliament should incorporate outdated provisions or omit suitable updating provisions.
Therefore, the committee may wish to welcome the fact that the Scottish Government has undertaken to review and amend the 2001 regulations in the first half of next year, as part of a planned stakeholder engagement to strengthen the governance and accountability arrangements for all health boards in Scotland, and that it will write to health boards before 31 December 2013 to give them notice of the upcoming consultation on updating the regulations.
The committee may also consider that updating regulations should be laid as soon as is practicable, so that suitable provision is made for the circumstances in which a health board member will be disqualified from being a member.
Does the committee agree to draw the regulations to the attention of the Parliament on the general reporting ground?
Members indicated agreement.
Does the committee agree to welcome the fact that the Scottish Government has undertaken to review and amend the 2001 regulations in the first half of next year, and that it will write to health boards before 31 December 2013 to give them notice of the upcoming consultation on updating the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.