Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, December 13, 2018

Official Report 1359KB pdf

Pow of Inchaffray Drainage Commission (Scotland) Bill: Final Stage

The next item of business is final stage proceedings on the Pow of Inchaffray Drainage Commission (Scotland) Bill. In dealing with the amendments, members should have the bill, SP Bill 9A, the marshalled list and the groupings of amendments. The division bell will sound and proceedings will be suspended for five minutes for the first division of the afternoon. The period of voting for the first division will be 30 seconds. Thereafter, I will allow a voting period of one minute for the first division after a debate. Members who wish to speak in the debate on any group of amendments should press their request-to-speak button as soon as possible after I call the group. Members should now refer to the marshalled list of amendments.

Schedule 3A—Preparation of annual budgets and heritors’ rights to require review etc

Group 1 is minor and technical amendments. Amendment 1, in the name of Tom Arthur, is grouped with amendments 2 to 4.

The amendments in this group are minor and technical. Amendments 1 to 3 refer to schedule 3A to the bill, which was inserted as the consequence of an amendment at consideration stage and makes provisions for an independent review of assessment. Amendments 1 and 2 make a change with regard to one of the review bodies, the Association of Drainage Authorities. In the bill, reference is made to “the Chairman”. Amendments 1 and 2 remove that reference, future proofing the bill and allowing for any future restructuring that may occur.

Amendment 3 makes reference to another body to which reviews can be referred: the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The amendment allows for referrals to other bodies in the future. Again, that is a prudent and sensible measure, because of the need for future proofing.

To illustrate the need for future proofing, amendment 4 changes a reference to the original Pow of Inchaffray act, which dates back to 1696—it was an act of the pre-union Scottish Parliament. The amendment changes “the Act of Parliament” to “the Act of the Parliament of Scotland”, as it is a convention that “act of Parliament” refers to an act of the United Kingdom Parliament.

The amendments are very minor and technical, and I am sure that they will be welcomed by the chamber.

I move amendment 1.

Amendment 1 agreed to.

Amendments 2 and 3 moved—[Tom Arthur]—and agreed to.

Schedule 4—Calculation of Chargeable Values

Amendment 4 moved—[Tom Arthur]—and agreed to.

That ends consideration of amendments. As members will be aware, at this point in the proceedings, the Presiding Officer is required, under standing orders, to decide whether, in his view, any provision of the bill relates to protected subject matter—that is, whether it modifies the electoral system and franchise for the Scottish Parliament elections. In this case, the Presiding Officer’s view is that no provision of the Pow of Inchaffray Drainage Commission (Scotland) Bill relates to protected subject matter. Therefore, the bill does not require a supermajority to be passed at this stage.