Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Official Report 492KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Sale of Alcohol to Children and Young People (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/199)

Agenda item 4 is consideration of six negative instruments, the first of which is SSI 2013/199. The regulations add a number of documents that can be accepted as proof of age by retailers that sell alcohol. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee—that is the only time that I will use the entire expression—is content with the regulations. Do members have any comments?

Will additional training perhaps be required for retailers to recognise these rather remote and not-very-often-used forms of identification?

Once retailers have seen the regulations, they will know what they have to look out for. It is for each individual retailer to know the law, so I hope that they are listening to the committee as they tend their tills.

Is there a cost implication to that?

There will be no financial effects on the Scottish Government—

There will be financial effects just on retailers.

The retailers will just be checking. If they are women, they will be able to multitask.

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Vulnerable Witnesses (Giving evidence in relation to the determination of Children’s Hearing grounds: Authentication of Prior Statements) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/215)

The second instrument is SSI 2013/215, which affects how the special measure of a prior statement is authenticated in children’s hearings proceedings in a sheriff court. The DPLR committee is content with the instrument. Do members have any comments? Are we content to make no recommendation?

Members indicated agreement.

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Football Banning Orders (Regulated Football Matches) (Scotland) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/228)

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Sports Grounds and Sporting Events (Designation) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/229)

The third and fourth instruments are SSI 2013/228 and SSI 2013/229, which were brought forward as a consequence of the reconstruction of the professional football league structure, with which I am extremely familiar.

The DPLR committee has drawn the instruments to the Parliament’s attention on the grounds that they were not laid within the required timescale of at least 28 days before the coming-into-force date. The DPLR committee was content with the explanation that was given in letters from the Government to the Presiding Officer, but the Justice Committee is required under standing orders to consider any letters to the Presiding Officer on the breach of laying requirements. The letters are on pages 9 and 14 of paper 2.

Do members have any comments on the instruments or on the letters to the Presiding Officer on the breach of laying requirements?

There is mitigation.

Right.

Are members content to make no recommendation in relation to the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

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Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/247)

The fifth instrument is SSI 2013/247, which amends the names of the strategic co-ordinating groups and reduces their number from eight—there were eight to mirror the number of police forces that previously existed—to three. The DPLR committee is content with the instrument. Do members have any comments on it?

Was it only the strategic co-ordinating groups that were consulted on the change? A reduction in their number from eight to three seems quite a reduction, given the importance of the issue.

I have no further information to provide, except to say that the reduction reflects the current police structure. If Margaret Mitchell wants to pursue the matter, she could lodge a parliamentary question.

The accompanying cover note says that there was no public consultation with anyone.

Now that members have put their comments on the record, is it the case that we wish to make no recommendation in relation to the instrument?

That is fine.

However, I wondered whether the convener might have a comment on the fact that the north, east and west of Scotland will have a group, but the south will not.

I no longer speak for the whole of the south of Scotland, so it would be most improper of me to make such a comment.

I have no further comments.

As a member of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing—which is a star chamber of its own—the member knows that there are now three policing divisions. I think that the change to the number of strategic co-ordinating groups simply reflects that.

We will not make any recommendation on the instrument. Members are making this very hard for me, but never mind.

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Legal Aid and Advice and Assistance (Photocopying Fees and Welfare Reform) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/250)

The sixth and final instrument is SSI 2013/250, which—this will cheer you up—reduces the fees that are allowable to solicitors for photocopying and makes changes to the reference to personal independence payment in the legal aid scheme. The DPLR committee is content with the instrument.

Anything that reduces the amount of money that solicitors get must be a good sign. You are not going to say that it is not, are you, Roddy?

I think that we should note for the record the comments of the Law Society of Scotland and its appreciation of the pressure on the public finances.

Yes, in fairness, the Law Society thinks that this is “a good idea”, to paraphrase my old history teacher.

Are members content to make no recommendation in relation to the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

Good. We move into private session.

11:54 Meeting continued in private until 12:07.