SP Paper 670 (Web Only)
Remit and membership
Remit:
The remit of the Committee is to consider and report on the Scottish economy, enterprise, energy, tourism and renewables and all other matters within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth apart from those covered by the remit of the Local Government and Regeneration Committee and matters relating to the Cities Strategy falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy.
Membership:
Chic Brodie
Murdo Fraser (Convener)
Patrick Harvie
Johann Lamont
Richard Lyle
Gordon MacDonald
Lewis Macdonald
Joan McAlpine
Dennis Robertson (Deputy Convener)
Committee Clerking Team:
Clerk to the Committee
Douglas Wands
Senior Assistant Clerk
Rodger Evans
Assistant Clerk
Diane Barr
The Scottish Regulators' Strategic Code of Practice
The Committee reports to the Parliament as follows—
1. At its meeting on 4 February 2015, the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee considered a revised Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice. Section 5 of the Regulatory Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 gives Scottish Ministers the power to issue a Code of Practice in support of the duty on regulators to contribute to sustainable economic growth. The Official Report of the meeting is available on the Committee’s webpage.
Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice
2. The Scottish Regulators’ Strategic Code of Practice was laid on 12 January 2015.
3. It requires regulatory functions to be exercised in accordance with the principles of better regulation and promotes an approach whereby regulators seek to understand those they regulate.
Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee consideration
4. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the revised Strategic Code of Practice on 20 January 2015 and published its report later that day. In its report, the DPLR Committee stated that it did not need to draw the attention of the Parliament to the draft code on any grounds within its remit.
Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee consideration
5. In considering the revised Strategic Code of Practice, the Committee explored a number of issues with the Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism.
6. The Minister was asked about the definition of sustainable economic growth in the code and also about its application to the exercise by regulators of regulatory functions in individual cases, in addition to determining any general regulatory policy or principles, as this differed from the previous draft. The Minister replied: “The original code did not reflect the meaning and intent of Parliament. The new code does and in that respect I believe the amended code is correct.”1
7. The Minister moved motion S4M-12158—
That the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee recommends that the Scottish Regulators' Strategic Code of Practice be approved.
The motion was agreed to (by division For: 8, Against: 1, Abstentions: 0).
Recommendation
8. The Committee recommends that the Scottish Regulators' Strategic Code of Practice be approved.
Any links to external websites in this report were working correctly at the time of publication. However, the Scottish Parliament cannot accept responsibility for content on external websites.
Footnotes:
1 Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, Official Report, 4 February 2015, Col 43.
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