Subordinate Legislation Committee,

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Official Report 188KB pdf

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Executive Responses

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Public Transport Users' Committee for Scotland Order 2006 (SSI 2006/250)

We asked the Executive to explain the purpose of the words

"from the date of coming into force of this Order"

in article 3. From the response, members will see that the Executive accepts that the order has been defectively drafted. I suggest that we report the order to the lead committee and the Parliament on that ground. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

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Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (Commencement No 1 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2006 (SSI 2006/239)

We pointed out that, although the Executive note states that the pilot scheme is to take place in the Fife constabulary area, there is nothing in the order that restricts the authorisation of enforcement to that area. Members will have seen the response from the Executive. Do members think that there remain doubts about the vires of the order?

The Executive's answer is not unprecedented. On a number of occasions, the Executive has answered a question that we have not asked and failed to answer the question that we have asked. This letter is a classic example of that.

The Executive has completely ignored the points that we raised. I think that it has done so for a good reason, from its point of view, in that we are right in saying that the parent act does not allow the Executive to define the geographical region and that the Executive has, therefore, tried to draft its way around the problem. That is probably the basic situation. The Executive should have been more honest and should have come clean in its response. However, as the legal brief says—and as we said at the end of our discussion last week—the situation will probably be okay in practical terms. However, it is a rather cack-handed way to go about things.

That is a fair summary. We will pass that on to the Parliament, if we are agreed.

Members indicated agreement.

Will we include "cack-handed"?

No. We will use appropriate language. Basically, we have been given reassurances that the situation will be perfectly okay, but we have concerns about how the order has been drafted.