Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee, 13 Jan 2010
Meeting date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Official Report
297KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Enactments) Order 2010 (Draft)<br />Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Subordinate Legislation) Order 2009 (SSI 2009/429)
Agenda item 2 is evidence taking on two items of related secondary legislation, of which one is an affirmative instrument and one is a negative instrument.
I am pleased to welcome to the committee the Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram. He is joined by Paul Wilson, who is policy manager in the getting it right for looked-after children team. I understand that the minister will make an opening statement.
Good morning, everyone. I add my best wishes to committee members for the year ahead.
I am grateful for the opportunity to outline why the Government seeks the committee's support for the orders, which make a number of necessary consequential amendments to primary and secondary legislation. The majority of those amendments simply replace references to the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 with similar references to the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. The orders also make amendments due to the introduction of permanence orders. Let me take this opportunity to explain some of those changes. I will not cover them all, but I am happy to answer any questions on other amendments.
Along with changes to references in primary legislation to the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, the draft Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Enactments) Order 2010 will make four changes to that act that we have identified as being required. The majority of those modifications are cosmetic changes to deal with supplementary words or subparagraphs that remained during the drafting of the act.
However, the draft order also includes one material change to the 2007 act. In discussions with stakeholders, we identified a potential omission in the drafting of section 109 of the 2007 act, which prescribes applications to the courts that must be heard in private. We are taking this opportunity to correct that omission. Persons who are affected by a permanence order, such as those who have had or currently have parental rights and responsibilities for the child, can be given leave of the court to apply for a revocation of the order. Such applications would not currently be subject to the same provisions of privacy as all other proceedings. Therefore, the order will amend section 109 to include reference to proceedings relating to an application under section 98 of the 2007 act. That will ensure that all proceedings for permanence orders will be heard in private.
The draft order will also make some changes due to the introduction of permanence orders, including an amendment to the Foster Children (Scotland) Act 1984 to ensure that persons who have had all their parental responsibilities and parental rights extinguished by a permanence order are not to be considered as suitable foster carers.
An amendment to the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is also required due to the introduction of permanence orders; the amendment ensures that the conditions under which referral to a children's hearing is made include circumstances in which a child is the subject of a permanence order and their behaviour is such that special measures are necessary for their adequate supervision.
All the amendments made by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Subordinate Legislation) Order 2009 are straightforward technical amendments, such as ensuring that legal aid is available in emergency situations when a court is considering a permanence order, or ensuring that information on spent convictions can still be gathered when assessing somebody for the purposes of adoption under the 2007 act.
The amendments that I have highlighted, along with the other minor changes to legislation that are made in the orders, are both important and necessary to allow the process of planning for permanence to operate in the existing legislative environment. I am happy to answer any questions that the committee has on the orders.
Thank you for that explanation of the Scottish statutory instruments that are before the committee today. I am sure that this is a rare occurrence in the committee, but it seems that we have no questions to ask you on changes to the legislation. That is possibly because the committee previously considered the policy impacts of the legislation in great detail.
Under the next item on the agenda, I invite the minister to move motion S3M-5466.
Motion moved,
That the Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee recommends that the draft Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Enactments) Order 2010 be approved.—[Adam Ingram.]
Motion agreed to.
Item 4 on our agenda is consideration of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (Modification of Subordinate Legislation) Order 2009 (SSI 2009/429). There have been no motions to annul the order and the Subordinate Legislation Committee had no recommendation to make on it. If there are no comments, does the committee agree that we have no recommendation to make on the order?
Members indicated agreement.
I thank the minister for his attendance. I suspend the meeting briefly to allow the minister and his official to leave, and the next witness panel to join us.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—