Subordinate Legislation Committee, 18 Sep 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 18, 2001

Official Report 147KB pdf

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Scottish Social Services Council (Appointments, Procedure and Access to the Register) Regulations 2001 (SSI 2001/303)

The regulations set out arrangements for appointments to, and procedures of, the Scottish Social Services Council, which was established by the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. They also provide for access to the register of social workers that the council maintains. The committee may wish to consider drawing to the attention of the Executive errors in the regulations.

I wonder why the preamble does not refer to the fulfilment of the statutory obligation on the Scottish ministers under section 56(2) and schedule 2(7) of the 2001 act to consult prior to making the regulations. We also need an explanation of the vires of regulation 2(1), which permits the Scottish ministers to appoint "such number of members" as they "think fit".

Those two questions are the most important. There is also an issue surrounding regulation 13. This is an old chestnut: can a charge be a nil charge? I am not sure. The committee may wish to give the Executive the benefit of the doubt in this instance. I am sure that we will.

Absolutely.

That is fine. It is just as well that we have decided that, as the same thing comes up later on a wider application of the interpretation of charges.

There is another question of vires. The words

"to the satisfaction of the Council",

which appear in regulation 13(3), may constitute a degree of sub-delegation that is not permitted by the enabling power. We should ask the Executive for a justification of that provision.

The matter of whether electronic communication is appropriate arises in relation to the regulations. Murray Sinclair said that the Executive was considering it in relation to the energy efficiency regulations. We should ask the Executive to clarify its attitude towards electronic communication in general. The question whether electronic communication is appropriate seems to come up every week. An informal letter is the proper approach—we do not wish to hit the Executive over the head.

We should ask the Executive to explain which power justifies the sub-delegation of fees to the council contained in regulation 13(5).