This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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The Queen's Speech
15/11/2006
The Queen's Speech presents the Scottish Parliament with opportunities to legislate for the benefit of the people of Scotland, according to Minister for Parliamentary Business, Margaret Curran.
The Executive is proposing that Legislative Consent Motions are brought forward for a number of Bills that will introduce specific improvements for Scotland which could not be achieved in the time remaining in this session of the Scottish Parliament.
Ms Curran added:
"The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament have delivered a very ambitious legislative programme to help people over the last few years. This includes legislation on anti-social behaviour, reforming the health service and the police and well as the smoking ban.
"The Parliament is still considering a number of substantial and important pieces of legislation, for example to protect children and vulnerable people and to control knife crime. There is therefore little scope for any fresh legislation to be considered by Parliament until after the election next year.
"The Queen's Speech announced today presents a number of legislative proposals which would benefit of the people of Scotland.
"Given that there would not be time for these proposals to be legislated for in this session, the Executive is proposing that a number of provisions are extended to Scotland under the Sewel Convention.
"This approach gives Scotland the best of both legislative worlds - our own ambitious programme and appropriate legislation on our behalf."
Further opportunities to legislate may well develop in other Bills announced today as their content is finalised. Work will continue with the UK Government on those and Parliament will be notified of any such opportunities as soon as they are identified.
The Bills already identified as having scope under the Sewel Convention are:
- Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress - this Bill will set up a new statutory UK-wide National Consumers Council. Extending this Bill to Scotland for all matters - including devolved areas - will ensure that Scottish consumers benefit from the resources of a UK wide institution and enjoy the same level of representation as consumers in other parts of the UK.
- Education and Training - this Bill will allow Scottish students to benefit from technological developments for exchanging learner and learning data across the entire education sector within the UK, and will provide efficient administration of their career development loans. Scottish employers will also benefit from modernisation of industrial training levy legislation which will ensure the legislation is more reflective of employers' wishes.
- Statistics and Registration Services - this Bill will ensure that Scottish Executive statistics are shown to meet the highest UK standards
- Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement - this Bill will establish a UK-wide reserved Tribunal Service modernising the structure and process of decisions made by tribunals in areas such as social security and tax. The Bill will also benefit Scottish museums and art galleries by extending to Scotland legislation protecting cultural artefacts loaned for exhibition from seizure.
The Executive will be bringing forward memorandums and Legislative Consent Motions for these Bills over the next few weeks, in line with the requirements of Standing Orders. It will be for the Scottish Parliament then to determine whether to give or withhold consent.