Subordinate Legislation Committee, 19 Jan 2010

Meeting date: Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Official Report 91KB pdf

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Draft Instrument subject to Approval

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Health Board Elections (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010 (Draft)

I ask the committee to agree to report the following points to the lead committee and the Parliament. First, the effect of regulation 2(4), which amends rule 5 of the schedule to the principal regulations, the Health Board Elections (Scotland) Regulations 2009 (SSI 2009/352), is not to specify how the eligibility of voters is to be established in circumstances in which a person could be entitled by the criteria that are set out in rule 5 to vote in health board elections both in Fife and in Dumfries and Galloway. The implied effect of that paragraph is that a voter may select the one area in which they may vote. If that is the intended policy, it could have been more clearly expressed.

Secondly, there appears to be a doubt whether the offences provisions in paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of new regulation 5A of the principal regulations, as inserted by regulation 2 of the draft regulations, are intra vires given the strong presumption against the creation of offences by subordinate legislation, which is rebuttable only by express provision or clear inference, neither of which appears to be present in this case.

Are those points agreed?

Members indicated agreement.