Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Official Report 429KB pdf
Contents
- Attendance
- Decision on Taking Business in Private
- Criminal Finances Bill
- Contract (Third Party Rights) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
- Instruments subject to Affirmative Procedure
- Instruments subject to Negative Procedure
- Instruments not subject to Parliamentary Procedure
- Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Criminal Finances Bill
Agenda item 2 is the committee’s consideration of the powers to make subordinate legislation that are conferred on the Scottish ministers in the Criminal Finances Bill, as amended. This United Kingdom Government bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 13 October 2016, and amendments to it are being considered at report stage in the House of Lords today, having previously been considered at committee stage in that house on 3 April 2017. This committee previously considered and reported on the provisions in the bill on 13 December 2016, and a legislative consent motion was agreed by the Scottish Parliament on 2 March 2017.
Following the legislative consent motion, further amendments were tabled for consideration in the House of Lords and a supplementary legislative consent memorandum was lodged on 30 March 2017. In lodging the supplementary memorandum, the Scottish Government noted that the timescales for consideration would be tight, as the bill was already at committee stage in the House of Lords. Those timescales tightened further with the announcement of a UK general election on 8 June and the consequential dissolution of the UK Parliament. As a result, it is expected that the bill will now complete its passage through the UK Parliament by tomorrow. To comply with the very tight timescales, the committee is required to consider and report on the LCM today.
It is suggested that the committee could be content with the amendments from its perspective. Does the committee agree to find acceptable in principle both the amendments that were tabled at report stage in the House of Lords on 25 April 2017 to the powers that the bill delegates to the Scottish ministers in clauses 53 and 54, and the parliamentary procedure to which those amended powers are subject?
Members indicated agreement.
Does the committee also agree that it is a matter of concern that the Parliament has not had a reasonable amount of time to fully scrutinise the changes? In particular, from the perspective of parliamentary scrutiny, is it agreed that it is regrettable that the committee will not be able to avoid publishing its report on the same day that both the amendments are voted on at report stage in the House of Lords and the Scottish Parliament votes on the supplementary legislative consent motion?
Members indicated agreement.