Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/Draft)
We now move on to a draft affirmative instrument. We have a substantial document before us, which, doubtless, will wing its way to another committee. Points were flagged up about this draft instrument. Are there any comments?
We must ask what provisions are made for an appeal against a decision of the Scottish ministers made under regulation 22(3). It appears that there is no such appeal.
There is also a question about whether regulation 22 provides for a decision on appeal by the Scottish ministers to be further appealed to a sheriff. We will flag up that issue and await the response.
Item 5 on the agenda is negative instruments. There is a substantial number of these instruments, many of which appear to have been sitting around the Executive offices. While we have days when we are not overworked, the difficulty is that if these documents all come in at the same time as we are dealing with the Transport (Scotland) Bill, those who brief us will have a substantial work load. We should put on the record our request that the Executive should bear in mind that those who advise us must process such matters within a short period of time. While we have no objection to trying to plough through that work, we cannot properly do our job if those who advise us are overworked and overburdened. It would be better if matters could be progressed at a more level pace.