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1. Introduction
1.1 The purpose of this consultation exercise is to gather views on a number of questions relating to an alternative approach for the delivery of major public transport infrastructure.
1.2 In June 2004 the Procedures committee of the Scottish Parliament conducted an inquiry into the practice and procedures of the then system for handling Private Bills. After consulting a number of parties, including promoters of current and forthcoming Private Bills as well as previous witnesses, the committee reported its findings to the Scottish Parliament in May 2005 1. The report concluded that improvements were required, in the short term, to the existing processes and procedures and that, in the long term, a new statutory system should be introduced for handling applications for private legislation.
1.3 In brief the recommendations of the committee report were :
in the short term -
- the Scottish Parliament to endorse the recommendation in relation to the longer term solution and to agree, in the interim, amendments to Standing Orders to enable changes, such as placing a requirement on promoters to consult with environmental bodies, to be made to the Private Bill process; and
in the longer term -
- a statutory system that will allow the principal responsibility for handling applications for private legislation to be transferred to the Scottish Ministers, but subject to the oversight of the Scottish Parliament;
- the Scottish Ministers to prepare and then introduce a bill to put in place such a system before the end of the current Parliamentary session.
1.4 The Scottish Parliament approved the recommendations on 4 May 2005. 2
1.5 The Scottish Executive is now embarking on formal consultation to inform a bill, as recommended by the Procedures committee and endorsed by the Scottish Parliament, which seeks to provide the necessary legislative framework to enable the Scottish Ministers to take principal responsibility for handling applications for transport projects currently requiring private legislation.
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