Schedule 3 — Devolved Public Bodies

Part of Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:00 pm on 21 June 2000.

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Photo of Sylvia Jackson Sylvia Jackson Labour 4:00, 21 June 2000

Following on from Johann Lamont's comments, I want to focus on the critical issue, which is that we did not have a definition of devolved public bodies when the committee discussed which bodies should be included on the list. The issue hinges on which public bodies are appropriate.

To add to the examples mentioned by Johann Lamont, some of the recreational trusts that councils have established cover extremely minor matters, such as running a playground in a rural area. Is it necessary that the burdens imposed by the bill should apply to such trusts?

There is also confusion around the position of school boards—that matter was raised earlier. School boards are advisory and do not have the executive budgetary powers that some people may think they have. Including bodies such as school boards in the provisions of the bill would result in fewer people coming forward to sit on school boards. In some areas of Scotland, it is growing increasingly difficult to encourage people to come forward.

I am confident that no one on this side of the chamber wants LECs excluded from the provisions of the bill. However, having said that, we should take on board the Executive's point. I do not often disagree with what Donald Gorrie says on the Local Government Committee, but from his comments today, I almost detected a shade of "Because you are not quite agreeing me, I will not agree with the Executive." We must take on board the Executive's comments. It will not be too long before LECs are included in the bill's provisions, particularly given the work of John Swinney and the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee. I hope that they will arrive at the necessary conclusions.