Environment and Rural Development Committee,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Official Report 155KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Special Waste Amendment (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2004<br />(SSI 2004/204)

We move to agenda item 2. The regulations have been considered by the Subordinate Legislation Committee, which had no comments to make on them. The regulations amend the principal regulations in response to concerns that were raised by the Subordinate Legislation Committee. Do I take it that members have no comments on the regulations?

Members indicated agreement.

The amount of stuff that is appended to these regulations, which are just two lines long, is astonishing. Is it absolutely necessary to print off all this stuff?

If it was not there, you would complain.

Would I? I doubt it.

I suppose we could ask the clerks to take a quick look over an instrument when no concerns have been raised by the Subordinate Legislation Committee. However, on strange occasions in the past, colleagues on this committee have actually noted errors in subordinate legislation—I remember Maureen Macmillan and Nora Radcliffe spotting things in the past. It is a matter of getting the balance right between effective scrutiny and letting things slide through.

The minister's name is wrongly spelt.

There you go. That just proves it.

Does that mean that there will have to be another set of regulations to amend these regulations?

I am sure that that can be done through a manuscript amendment.

Perhaps the clerks could bear our comments in mind as a matter of common sense when we have such a large amount of work coming up, although I would not like us to carry out less effective scrutiny. Perhaps we can have a sift of items on which no concern has been expressed by the Subordinate Legislation Committee; however, we still have to consider the policy issues. I ask Tracey Hawe to consider the matter.

Joking aside, the point that Rob Gibson has highlighted is an important one. If the draftsmen cannot get the minister's name right, that hardly inspires confidence in other areas.

On this occasion, the regulations were produced to amend other regulations. We will keep an eye on the detail. Thank you, colleagues.

I now invite the official reporters, the broadcasters, the public and any visiting members to leave the room, because we are moving into private session, as agreed at our previous meeting, to consider two draft reports.

Meeting continued in private until 12:24.