Scottish Parliament legislative programme
First Minister Alex Salmond set out a legislative programme of 15 Bills for the Scottish Parliament in a speech on 3 September 2008.
Those which caught the eye of Scots Law News included –
- Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill (under which inter alia under-21s would not be allowed to buy alcoholic drink at off-licences and minimum prices would be set for such drink)
- Scottish Parliament and Local Government Elections Bill (under which it will become impossible to have same-day elections for the Scottish Parliament and local government)
- Public Services Bill (under which umbrella the Government will attempt to revive the twitching corpse of Creative Scotland in place of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen; but to be despatched into oblivion is the Scottish Records Advisory Council, of which one of our contributors is Chair until 30 September 2008)
- Children’s Hearings Bill (to bring the system under a single national authority)
- Legal Profession Bill (to reform the structures of the legal profession in Scotland, while maintaining its independence)
- Arbitration Bill (long-awaited modernisation of the law in this area)
- Legislative Reform Bill (to change the ways in which the Scottish Parliament scrutinises subordinate legislation)