Subordinate Legislation Committee, 25 Sep 2001

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Official Report 128KB pdf

---

Parole Board (Scotland) Rules 2001 (SSI 2001/315)

A number of questions for the Executive arise from this instrument. Do members have any comments?

The schedule has not been numbered.

Rule 2(2) provides that a reference to "a numbered Schedule" is a reference to

"the Schedule bearing that number in these Rules".

However, there is only one schedule to the rules, which is not numbered.

I am glad that Ian Jenkins understood that.

There is also some confusion about the expression "to these Rules" following references to the schedule in the rules. We can ask for an explanation of that.

I refer members to the provision for the sending of documents that is made under rule 11 of the instrument. The Executive has allowed for fax transmission, but it has not mentioned electronic communications. Last week we asked a general question about the Executive's stance on that matter, so we may want to let it go.

The instrument contains an example of drafting that may be very hurtful to the lawyers who sit on this committee. I would hate that to be the case. Rule 12(3) permits the chairman of the board or the chairman of a tribunal to authenticate corrections to records of decisions of the board or tribunal

"by certificate under his hand".

I think that that term is borrowed from English law.

I do not know.

Is there an equivalent Scottish expression that Scots lawyers would understand?

Could the word "signed" not be used? I am sorry that Gordon Jackson did not know that the term

"by certificate under his hand"

was borrowed from English law, but now he does. Once again, this is a question of style in the drafting of regulations.

"Signed" would be fine, would it not?

I am glad that there is total unanimity in the committee on that point. Perhaps it would be enough just to speak to the Executive about the matter. However, if we have a number of questions to put to the Executive, we can ask it about the use of the expression

"by certificate under his hand"

as well.

Are there any further matters relating to the instrument that members would like the committee to bring to the attention of the Executive?

The instrument states that

"the powers of the Board may be exercised by any 3 members of the Board."

Subsequently it states that those three members may be appointed by the chairman of the board. I am not sure what the difference is between those two provisions. The Executive may mean that the powers of the board cannot be exercised simply by three members getting together in a corner, but that their actions need to be authenticated by the chairman.

Is there not a chairman of the whole board? I do not think that the reference is to a chairman appointed by the three persons who are meeting.

That is why we are not sure what is meant by the provisions. We will write to the Executive to clarify certain points, including this one.

A few other points have been drawn to our attention. We should write to the Executive to ask the questions that are raised in the legal advice that we have received. The instrument also contains a number of typographical errors that should be drawn to the Executive's attention.

Rule 17 contains references to a number of provisions of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993. It also refers to the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, but there are no footnotes in the instrument to explain those references. We will seek clarification from the Executive on that.

Ian Jenkins suggested that we raise with the Executive all the issues that have been brought to our attention.

These are all technical points, and I do not think that it is worth our spending more time on them.

There is also a less technical point relating to consultation. We can bring that to the Executive's attention as well.