Subordinate Legislation Committee, 24 Feb 2004

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Official Report 103KB pdf

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Delegated Powers Scrutiny

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Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

I welcome members back after the recess to the seventh meeting of the Subordinate Legislation Committee.

As members know, the time that the committee has to consider the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Bill is now at an end. We have been reassured that we will be able to consider the bill again at stage 2.

The Executive's response to the committee's points shows that a few things have been changed. However, paragraphs 5 and 6 of the legal brief might make the committee want to reconsider the guidance and schedule 4. Further changes might be required following the lead committee's discussion of the bill. Is that acceptable? Do members have any other points to make?

There are clearly still concerns about the guidance on dispersal of groups and the directions to local authorities under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. We cannot do any more at this stage but, given that the bill will come back to the committee, we can consider those issues again.

We can pick up on those points then.

There are likely to be some changes to the bill by the time it comes back to the committee.

All the committee's points and the Executive's responses will be passed on to the lead committee. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

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Tenements (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

We are just starting to consider the Tenements (Scotland) Bill, which forms the third and final part of the programme of property law reform. The policy memorandum gives a precise background to the bill. Most of it is about the tenement management scheme that the bill will introduce. There are several delegated powers in various sections of the bill. We have plenty of time to consider the bill, so we can go through those sections and come back at the end if there are any points that we want to raise with the Executive.

Section 4 deals with the various rules of the tenement management scheme. Does anyone want to highlight any of the points in the legal briefing?

The Executive wants to be able to increase the amounts of deposit specified in rule 3.3 of the scheme to take account of inflation. Given that that would be done by negative instrument, it should be written into statute that changes will be simply inflationary. As the bill stands, the amounts could be changed in any way.

Should we get the Executive to confirm that that is the case?

Yes, because the Executive has been prepared to insert similar provisions in other legislation that we have dealt with recently. I do not see why that should not apply in this case.

However, as you suggest, if the legislation was going to involve changes to monetary amounts other than inflationary changes, we would want an affirmative order to be used.

It would not be desirable for the affirmative procedure to be used to change monetary amounts by the rate of inflation. If changes were so restricted, it would be best for the negative procedure to be used.

So we want to check that the sole change will be a change to take account of inflation.

If that is the Executive's intention, we should ask why it does not include a provision to that effect in the bill.

Absolutely. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Section 15 is about the insurance provisions. The Scottish Law Commission was against the Executive putting in a list of risks, on the ground that that would not be flexible. What does the committee think about what is proposed?

It strikes me that we should be worried about the enforceability of legislation. The more detail that the bill prescribes about the type of insurance that is required, the more difficult the bill will be to enforce. Given that the Scottish Law Commission did not believe that a list of risks was necessary, we should ask the Executive why it thinks that a list is necessary and whether having a list will help or hinder the implementation of the bill.

Will we have time to consider the Executive's response? Depending on what the Executive says, we might want to make further comment.

Yes, there will be plenty of time for that. Shall we ask that question?

Members indicated agreement.

Section 22 amends the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 to replicate the provisions of rule 3 of the tenement management scheme. That brings us back to the issue of amounts of money, so the same points apply as we raised about section 4.

Hopefully, we are all delighted that section 26, on ancillary provision, and section 29, on the short title and commencement order, seem to be reasonable.