Subordinate Legislation
Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/146)
All the items on today's agenda are items of subordinate legislation. For their further assistance, members should have in front of them the Subordinate Legislation Committee report that refers to several of the instruments. If members have any issues that they want to raise, they should be armed with that report. A copy was e-mailed to members this morning and hard copies were also sent to members' desks.
The first instrument we have to consider is the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2003. No members have raised any points on the instrument and there has been no motion to annul. Are members agreed that there is nothing to report on the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Anti-Pollution Works (Scotland) Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/168)
Again, no members have raised any points on the regulations and no motions to annul have been lodged. Are we agreed that there is nothing to report on the instrument?
Members indicated agreement.
Action Programme for Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/169)
No motion to annul has been lodged and no members have raised any points about the regulations.
I welcome the regulations. The grant scheme that has been introduced is worth while. The dates are important and the reduction in the length of the closed season has lessened the burden that the regulations would have imposed on Scottish agriculture.
Your comments are duly noted. Are we agreed that the committee has nothing to report on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
Waste Incineration (Scotland) Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/170)
Again, no member has moved a motion to annul and no points have been raised on the instrument. Are we agreed that we have nothing to report?
Members indicated agreement.
Waste Management Licensing Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2003 (SSI 2003/171)
No motions to annul have been lodged and no member has raised any points on the instrument. However, I would like to make a few comments.
The Scottish Executive has introduced the regulations on the back of the committee's report on petition PE327, which was lodged by the Blairingone and Saline Action Group. The regulations will outlaw practices that were highlighted in the petition, such as the spreading of untreated abattoir waste on land. We have done a fair amount of work on PE327; that work was led, initially, by the committee's former convener, Andy Kerr. We have maintained the pressure for the Executive to introduce regulations and have had a debate in the Parliament on the subject. The introduction of the regulations highlights the effectiveness of the Parliament's public petitions system and the work of the Parliament's committees in initiating changes to legislation. I welcome SSI 2003/171.
I endorse what the convener has said. The stopping of the spreading of abattoir waste on agricultural land is long overdue. I am very glad that the regulations will do that.
Do members agree that we have nothing to report on the regulations?
Members indicated agreement.
Financial Assistance for Environmental Purposes (Scotland) Order 2003<br />(SSI 2003/173)
No motions to annul have been lodged and no member has raised any points on the instrument. Are we agreed that we have nothing to report?
Members indicated agreement.
Planning and Compensation Act 1991 (Amendment of Schedule 18) (Scotland) Order 2003 (SSI 2003/175)
No motions to annul have been lodged and no member has raised any points on the instrument. Are we agreed that we have nothing to report?
Members indicated agreement.
That brings us to the end of our consideration of subordinate legislation.
Given that this is our final meeting of the session, I want to make some closing remarks. During the Parliament's first four-year session, there have been 21 members of the Transport and the Environment Committee. Robin Harper and Nora Radcliffe are the only members to have been at the first meeting and to remain members at the end; only Robin Harper's service to the committee has been continuous. I congratulate Robin on that record. It is appropriate that only the Green party's sole member in the Parliament has an unbroken record on the Transport and the Environment Committee.
I thank all the other members of the committee, existing and former. The Transport and the Environment Committee has been an effective parliamentary committee and has avoided division when division has been unnecessary. On most occasions, members of all the different parties have managed to work on a co-operative basis.
I thank the members of the clerking team for the professional support that they have given to the committee throughout the first session. They have had a heavy work load, not only because of the number of bills that the committee has been involved in considering, but because the committee has dealt with more public petitions than any other committee, as well as a high number of statutory instruments. I thank current members of the clerking team and those who have served the committee in the past.
We have considered four major bills: the Transport (Scotland) Bill, the Water Industry (Scotland) Bill, the Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Bill and the Building (Scotland) Bill. We have published influential reports in a number of areas, including telecommunications development, the Scottish water industry, aquaculture and the rail industry. I thank members who have spent a great deal of time on helping to prepare those reports.
I wish members all the very best, whether they are fortunate enough to be re-elected or whether they take a new turn in their careers and their lives. Thank you all for your assistance and support over the years.
Meeting closed at 15:09.