Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Official Report 272KB pdf

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Instruments subject to Negative Procedure

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Personal Licence (Training) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/261)

The form or meaning of the instrument could be clearer in that subparagraphs (a) and (b) of regulation 2(2) duplicate the terms of paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 87(1) of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005. That duplication is unnecessary and, as it cannot competently be done under the powers that are available to ministers, falls to be ignored in terms of legal effect. The unnecessary inclusion of those provisions is therefore of possible detriment to the clarity of the instrument in the context of its interaction with the parent statute.

Does the committee therefore agree to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (h), as its form or meaning could be clearer?

Members indicated agreement.

At best, the provisions are untidy, although they could be described as something worse than that.

I am grateful for your comment. The point is well made.

A further point has been raised in relation to the instrument. Regulation 2(2), which prescribes the training requirement that is to be met by personal licence holders, appears to have been made by an unusual or unexpected use of the enabling powers. It appears to sub-delegate, in part, the function of prescribing the training requirement for personal licence holders by providing that the training requirement is to complete a course that has been accredited by the Scottish ministers without providing further specification of which courses are accredited for that purpose, or how the process of accreditation is to work.

Does the committee therefore agree to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on reporting ground (g), as it appears to have been made by an unusual or unexpected use of the enabling powers?

Members indicated agreement.

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Overhead Lines (Exemption) (Scotland) Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/264)

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Common Agricultural Policy Single Farm Payment and Support Schemes (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/265)

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Angus College (Transfer and Closure) (Scotland) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/267)

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Banff and Buchan College of Further Education (Transfer and Closure) (Scotland) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/268)

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Cumbernauld College (Transfer and Closure) (Scotland) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/269)

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John Wheatley College and Stow College (Transfer and Closure) (Scotland) Order 2013 (SSI 2013/270)

The committee agreed that no points arose on the instruments.