Hansard

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations in relation to questions (a) and (b)? Given the retrospective operation of the regulations, are members content to draw to...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

I declare an interest in that I am a recipient of a pension under the national health service pension scheme and my wife, who retired from the NHS three weeks ago, is about to be a recipient of a pension under the scheme.Are members content to draw the regulations to the atten...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations? Members should note that the Scottish Government has agreed to correct the error prior to the regulations coming into for...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations? Members should note that the Scottish Government has undertaken to correct the errors prior to the regulations coming int...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the ground that the definition of "pension member" in regulation 2 should be a definition of "pensioner member", but that the error is unlikely to affect the operation of the r...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations?Members indicated agreement.

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the order to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations, and to note that the Scottish Government has undertaken to delete the references to paragraph G9 in the schedules to the order ...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the order to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations, and to note that the Scottish Government has undertaken to correct the error by future amendment and before the relevant provis...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on the grounds set out in the summary of recommendations?Members indicated agreement.

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Dec 2008

Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

I intend to put the question on four delegated powers together, because the issues that arise from them are the same. The powers are in section 10(1)(a), "Flood risk assessments: review"; section 13(2), "SEPA to identify potentially vulnerable areas and local plan districts"; ...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Dec 2008

Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

On section 23(2), "SEPA to prepare flood risk management plans", in light of the potential impact upon the deadlines that are imposed in the bill, are members content to draw the Scottish Government's response to the attention of the lead committee, which might want to conside...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Dec 2008

Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Are members content to report that the committee questions whether it is within the vires of the proposed delegated power to make provisions for the structure of such plans, and the procedural steps that must be taken during their preparation? The committee might also want to ...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Dec 2008

Instruments Subject to Annulment

Are members content to draw the order to the attention of the lead committee and the Parliament on the ground that, in relation to the citation of the enabling powers in the first paragraph of the preamble, the committee considers that there has been a failure to follow normal...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

10 Mar 2009

Instruments Subject <br />to Annulment

Are members content to draw the regulations to the Parliament's attention on the ground that there has been an admitted failure on the part of the Scottish Government to follow normal drafting practice, in that one of the relevant enabling powers—section 54(1) of the Registrat...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

24 Mar 2009

Instruments subject <br />to Annulment

Are members content to draw the regulations to the attention of the Parliament on the ground that there has been a failure on the part of the Scottish Government to follow normal drafting practice in that one of the relevant enabling powers—section 8(4) of the Regulation of Ca...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

12 May 2009

Instruments not laid before the Parliament

Are we content to draw the instrument to the attention of the Parliament on the ground that, in the citation of enabling powers in the preamble, there has been a drafting error, but not such as is considered to affect the validity or operation of the instrument?

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Equality Bill

Is the committee content to draw to the attention of the lead committee the fact that, although the power in clause 91(10)(c) enables the Scottish ministers to prescribe any "appropriate regulator" in Scotland for the purposes of clause 91, the Government's legislative consent...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Draft Instruments subject <br />to Approval

Is the committee content to draw regulations 18(1) and 18(2), on allocation of costs, to the attention of the lead committee in relation to its consideration of the regulations?

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Instruments subject <br />to Annulment

Is the committee content to draw the regulations to the attention of the Parliament on the ground that a mistake has been made in a reference to a related statutory instrument? The committee might wish to acknowledge that that mistake is unlikely to have any effect on the oper...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

16 Jun 2009

Instruments subject <br />to Annulment

You will notice from your briefing that our legal team has advised us that, on two of those 16 instruments—those relating to animals and animal products and products of animal origin, SSIs 2009/227 and 2009/228—they were unable to give the details of the transposition as much ...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Feb 2010

Instruments subject to Annulment

Does the committee agree to report that there is a drafting error in article 6 of the order, in that the words "having been" are duplicated? It should be noted that, although the error is unlikely to affect the operation of the order, the meaning of the provision would be clea...

Ian McKee (Oldest Committee Member): SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Temporary Convener

I welcome members to the Subordinate Legislation Committee's 22nd meeting in 2008. We have apologies from Jamie Stone and Gil Paterson—who is being substituted for by Chris Harvie—as well as from Jackie Baillie and Helen Eadie. John Park has said that he will be late. I ask me...

The Deputy Convener (Ian McKee): SNP Committee

24 Mar 2009

Arbitration (Scotland) Bill:<br />Stage 1

I welcome members to the 11th meeting in 2009 of the Subordinate Legislation Committee. We have received apologies from Jamie Stone, which is why I am convening the meeting. I ask members to turn off any mobile phones, BlackBerrys and so on.The committee considered the delegat...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

12 May 2009

Instruments subject to Annulment

Are we content to report that, although on initial consideration regulation 11 might appear to be an unusual or unexpected use of the powers conferred by section 71 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, the position is satisfactorily explained and justified in the ...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

12 May 2009

Instruments subject to Annulment

Are we content to report to the Parliament that the committee notes the explanation given by the Scottish Government for the failure to refer to wood and bark of the plants mentioned in item 1a, added by article 6(1)(a) of the order? Are we also content to note that the transp...

The Deputy Convener (Ian McKee): SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill: After Stage 2

I welcome members to the 19th meeting in 2009 of the Subordinate Legislation Committee. I have received apologies from Jamie Stone, Jackson Carlaw and Helen Eadie. I ask members and anyone else in the room to turn off mobile phones.Item 1 is consideration of the delegated powe...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Paragraph 4 of schedule 1 contains the power to prescribe the amount of fixed penalty and the discounted amount. Is the committee content to report to the lead committee and the Parliament that it considers that the prescribing of maximum penalties that can be imposed for cont...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

02 Jun 2009

Equality Bill

Item 3 is consideration of a legislative consent memorandum on the Equality Bill. We will consider the powers to make subordinate legislation that are conferred on the Scottish ministers.On clause 91, "Qualifications bodies", does the committee agree to report to the lead comm...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

17 Nov 2009

Instruments subject to Annulment

Is the committee content to report that the order contains a drafting error, in that the definition of the Railways Act 2005 in the preamble is of no legislative effect? No definition was required, since the 2005 act is referred to once only. It should be noted that the error ...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee

09 Jan 2008

Public Health etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

I draw the witnesses' attention to section 16(2)—I am having a second bite at the cherry because I met the bill team at the Subordinate Legislation Committee—which gives the director of a diagnostic laboratory the job of notifying to the appropriate people the existence of a n...

Ian McKee: SNP Committee

26 Mar 2008

“Glasgow 2014—Delivering a lasting legacy for Scotland”

The reason why this committee covers both health and sport is the link between those two subjects. I will put my question a little more starkly than I might otherwise do, just to try to draw out a response. Apart from those last observations by Professor Coalter, I have so far...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Committee

27 Nov 2007

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

The committee should draw ministers' attention to the final item in the list of notifiable organisms in part 2 of schedule 1. The term,"Any other clinically significant pathogen found in blood",is open to a wide variety of interpretations and could cover socially significant m...

Ian McKee: SNP Committee

11 Dec 2007

Delegated Powers Scrutiny

The issue is important. We should strongly draw the lead committee's attention to the provision, which I think is flawed. It gives the clinician the responsibility for deciding what something means, as opposed to the legislator.

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members satisfied with the Scottish Government's response to our questions (a) and (b)? If so, do members agree that we should draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on that basis?Members indicated agreement.

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members satisfied with the Scottish Government's response? If so, do members agree that we should draw the regulations to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament on that basis?Members indicated agreement.

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Scottish Government Responses

Are members satisfied with the Scottish Government's response to questions (a), (b) and (c), in light of its undertaking to clarify the matters raised by the committee and, if so, to draw the order to the attention of the lead committee and the Parliament on that basis?Members...

The Temporary Convener: SNP Committee

24 Jun 2008

Instruments Subject <br />to Annulment

Are members satisfied with the explanation provided by the Scottish Government for breaching the 21-day rule and, if so, do they agree to draw that to the attention of the lead committee and Parliament?Members indicated agreement.

Ian McKee: SNP Committee

20 Jan 2009

Instruments Subject <br />to Annulment

I take Jackson Carlaw's point. However, we cannot expect the Scottish Government to give an answer that is different from the answer that it has given in the past. We cannot expect the Government to agree with us when it did not agree with us before—I suppose that that is why ...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

12 May 2009

Instruments subject to Annulment

In view of what seems to be quite an important potential problem, whereby two bits of legislation could be so far removed from each other that we could consider an instrument under the negative procedure without our knowing quite what its effect will be, should we draw this ma...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

22 Sep 2009

Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

We have been apprised from various quarters of the fact that there continues to be concern about the power. Would it be possible to draw up a list of bodies that would not be affected by the power? I refer to bodies that have some scrutiny power over Government, such as the Sc...

The Deputy Convener: SNP Committee

17 Nov 2009

Instruments subject to Annulment

Do we agree to draw the regulations to the attention of the Parliament and the lead committee on the ground that there has been a delay of almost six months in correcting an incompatibility between Scots criminal law and European Community law?

Ian McKee: SNP Chamber

07 Jun 2007

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Domestic Carbon Emissions

May I draw the minister's attention to the experience of an acquaintance of mine, who has attempted to purchase a domestic wind turbine and eventually gain planning permission? He has had 22 telephone calls and numerous letters, but one and a half years later he is no nearer s...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

14 Jun 2007

Free Personal Care

First, I declare an interest: as one of the few members in the chamber who is over the age of 65, I might well need some free personal care myself.I congratulate Dave Thompson on his excellent maiden speech and Mary Scanlon on accomplishing the remarkable achievement of being ...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

25 Oct 2007

Alcohol

We have heard and will hear more about the strategies that have been suggested for educating consumers on the dangers of excess alcohol consumption and about the justice system's role. I will say no more about those aspects of the alcohol challenge, except to make a plea to en...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

24 Jan 2008

Health Improvement

Health improvement is a massive topic, so I will concentrate only on the vexed aspect of health inequality, which Governments over the years have tried to tackle with little success. Indeed, by some measurements, the health gap between rich and poor has steadily increased over...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

30 Jan 2008

Migrants

In her comprehensive and informative opening speech, Margo MacDonald referred to Scotland's ageing, shrinking population. I am part of that ageing population and, like the population, I am probably shrinking as well. I speak to support Margo MacDonald's positive motion.Given o...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

26 Mar 2008

Terminal Illness (Patient Choice)

I congratulate Jeremy Purvis on securing the debate and hope that everyone accepts that there is good faith on both sides. As Mike Rumbles said, the issues are not black and white. There is no desire to end people's lives casually or to prolong people's agony unnecessarily.As ...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

25 Jun 2008

Alcohol Misuse

So far in the debate, we have dealt with this subject mainly as a law and disorder problem, but I ask the Presiding Officer's indulgence in allowing me to draw on my experience of caring for people who are affected by alcohol—the drinkers themselves, and the people around them...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

18 Sep 2008

Tourism

I draw members' attention to my entry in the register of members interests, in which I declare that I am a joint owner of a small self-catering establishment in the Highlands. I add my congratulations to the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee on producing such a stimulating...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

01 Oct 2008

Cancer Drug Access

The question of which drugs should be made available on the national health service can seem extremely confusing, so let us try to tease out some of the issues.As the Public Petitions Committee's report tells us, no drug is allowed to be prescribed unless it has passed the scr...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

20 Nov 2008

Looked-after Children

We all agree that the 14,060 children who needed to be looked after by local authorities as at March 2007 are 14,060 children too many, but, unfortunately, for many children a form of corporate parenting is the only sensible option that is in their interests.One thing is certa...

Ian McKee: SNP Chamber

20 Nov 2008

Looked-after Children

I do not want to get into a dogfight about budget cuts. We have been talking a lot about funding and physical resources, but I want to draw attention to a more profound problem that we face in our society: the lack of support that we give to our social workers.With the benefit...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP): SNP Chamber

10 Dec 2008

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I join my colleagues in congratulating Jamie Hepburn on securing this important debate. We all know a lot about the sad affront to human rights all over the world, but tonight I would like to draw to members' attention the thin veneer of civilisation that pertains in this coun...

Ian McKee SNP Chamber

08 Sep 2010

Scottish Government’s Programme

I will happily come on to duty later on, if the Presiding Officer allows me to. However, I draw the member’s attention to evidence that the chief executive of Whyte & Mackay gave to the Health and Sport Committee. Admittedly, he was discussing a minimum unit price of 40p—a pri...

Ian McKee SNP Chamber

15 Sep 2010

Drugs Strategy

The member makes a good point, and I would certainly support such research being done.The inescapable fact is that the vast majority of drug users will continue to live in the same area and will often experience the circumstances that led them to drugs in the first place. They...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP) SNP Chamber

16 Sep 2010

First Minister’s Question Time · Alcohol (Caffeine Content)

I draw the Deputy First Minister’s attention to the evidence that was given to the Health and Sport Committee yesterday, not just by Chief Superintendent Bob Hamilton, but by Dr Alasdair Forsyth of the Glasgow centre for the study of violence, who said, “There’s no research to...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP) SNP Chamber

16 Sep 2010

Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight

I am extremely pleased to speak in this important debate on Scottish food and drink fortnight and I will not exhibit the slightest cynicism, which I have detected in earlier speeches.Scotland is—rightly—world famous for the quality of our whisky, but for far too many years Sco...

Ian McKee (Lothians) (SNP) SNP Chamber

25 Nov 2010

Scottish Executive Question Time · Public Art

I draw to the minister’s attention what I regard to be almost the Cinderella of the art world: sculpture, an art form that can give great pleasure and even inspiration to many of us. I was glad to hear the minister mention the work of Antony Gormley in her first answer. What f...

Ian McKee SNP Chamber

09 Dec 2010

Scottish Executive Question Time · Schools (International Links)

I draw the cabinet secretary’s attention to the British Council’s connecting classrooms in east Asia project, which I observed in action during a recent visit to the region. I gather that the Scottish Executive Education Department, unlike the education departments of other Un...

Ian McKee SNP Committee

01 Dec 2010

Certification of Death (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

From my experience of signing death certificates, I know that, in many cases, it is impossible to be accurate unless a post mortem is requested. There are plenty of people who are found dead in bed at an old age and everyone says how wonderful it was that they did not suffer. ...