Education Committee, 23 Nov 2005

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Official Report 327KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

Good morning, colleagues, I welcome you to the Education Committee's 21st meeting in 2005. We have a long agenda ahead of us this morning. We will mainly be dealing with the Joint Inspection of Children's Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill, but before that we have a number of statutory instruments that were carried over from a couple of meetings ago while we awaited a final report from the Subordinate Legislation Committee, which we have now received. The instruments are all before the committee. Before I ask whether we have anything that we wish to report on the instruments, I ask members whether they have questions on any of the issues that the Subordinate Legislation Committee raised. I think that Lord James has a couple of points.

They may be matters on which we wish to report. The first point is whether we can seek clarification from the minister about whether, in cross-boundary disputes, the home or host authority would attend an additional support needs tribunal. That has not been made altogether clear in the guide to parents. It is a technical point, but it might be worth clarifying.

Secondly, my understanding is that, currently, either the local authority or a parent can challenge the tribunal's decision on a point of law in the Court of Session. In the letter that he wrote to me on 24 June, the then Deputy Minister for Education and Young People, Euan Robson, promised that details would be set out in the rules and procedures for the additional support needs tribunals and in the guide to parents. However, those details do not appear to be made clear in either the Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland (Practice and Procedure) Rules 2005 (SSI 2005/514) or the guide. Could we raise that by letter? Again, it is a technical point. In his letter, the deputy minister said:

"The Rules and Procedures for the Additional Support Needs Tribunal, which are currently out for consultation, sets out further detail on this matter. It is intended that the guide for parents on making a reference to the tribunal will contain this information. In addition, at the time of the tribunal's decision the parties involved in the reference will be informed of their right to refer the matter on a point of law to the Court of Session."

It would be helpful to parents if clarification was given on that.

Are colleagues content that we write to the minister and ask for clarification on those two points?

Members indicated agreement.

If there are no other questions on the points that the Subordinate Legislation Committee raised, I will go through the instruments to ask whether the committee wishes to report on them.

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Additional Support for Learning Dispute Resolution (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/501)

Does the committee agree to make no comment on the regulations?

Members indicated agreement.

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Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland (Practice and Procedure) Rules 2005 (SSI 2005/514)

Does the committee agree to make no comment on the rules, subject to the letter that Lord James has asked us to send?

Members indicated agreement.

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Additional Support for Learning (Placing Request and Deemed Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/515)

Does the committee agree to make no comment on the regulations?

The first point that I raised related to these regulations. It would be a great help if that could be clarified.

Subject to that point, does the committee agree to make no comment?

Members indicated agreement.

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Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004<br />(Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order 2005 (SSI 2005/516)<br />Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (Consequential Modifications of Subordinate Legislation) Order 2005 (SSI 2005/517)

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Additional Support for Learning (Co-ordinated Support Plan) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2005 (SSI 2005/518)

Does the committee agree to make no comment on the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.