Subordinate Legislation Committee, 28 Nov 2000

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 28, 2000

Official Report 79KB pdf

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Education (Provision of Information as to Schools) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2000 (SSI 2000/406)

Various points have been brought to our attention on the regulations, in particular in relation to their drafting. The legal advice that we have received has dealt with the principal regulations.

We have been advised that there are significant deficiencies in the drafting of the regulations. As amended, regulation 3(2) of the principal regulations specifies 15 September in each year as the date by which the information that is specified in the paragraphs of the schedule must be provided. Regulation 2(2) of the amendment regulations purports to substitute for the words "paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, or 7" in regulation 3(2) of the principal regulations, the words "paragraphs 5 or 7". However, regulation 3(2) does not contain a reference to paragraph 5 of the schedule; it refers to paragraph 6.

Regulation 3(3) of the principal regulations gives 30 October as the date by which the information that is specified in paragraph 5 of the schedule must be provided and therefore appears to be in conflict with the proposed amendment to regulation 3(2), which specifies 15 September.

Furthermore—I thank Margaret Macdonald for her excellent work on the regulations—the proposed amendment to regulation 3(2) seems to remove the requirement to provide the information specified in paragraph 6 by a particular date. It would be interesting to know if that is the intention.

Finally, statutory instrument 1993/1605 appears to have been amended by statutory instrument 1994/351. That seems to be a relevant amendment, yet it is not referred to in the footnote. We would like an explanation for that.

That was a full, concise and helpful resumé of the advice that we received. Clearly, more than just a minor drafting error has occurred, so we will await the Executive's response.