Letter from the Convener to the Minister for Parliamentary Business, 10 September 2021
On Tuesday 31 August 2021 the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee discussed two items which it agreed to highlight to you by correspondence. These were:
the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/249); and
four instruments which the Committee was not able to consider at its first meeting on 22 June 2021.I will turn to each in turn.
Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/249)
As you will know, the Session 5 Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee repeatedly called on the Scottish Government to consolidate the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/303), known as the “Working Age Regulations”, and the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (SSI 2012/319), known as the “Pension Age Regulations” (together, the “Principal Regulations”).
The current Committee welcomed the consolidation of the Working Age Regulations by SSI 2021/249.
The Committee would be grateful for an update on whether the Scottish Government has any plans to consolidate the Pension Age Regulations and, if so, when this might be done?
Four instruments which the Committee was not able to consider at its first meeting in June 2021
At both the close of Session 5 and following the election on 6 May, a number of SSIs were laid by the Scottish Government which were unable to be considered by the Committee at its first meeting on 22 June. This was because the SSIs had either already been approved in the Chamber (as was the case with made affirmatives) or were subject to the negative procedure and the 40 days available for parliamentary scrutiny had elapsed. The Committee’s legal advisers nevertheless looked at all such instruments in case the Committee had been in a position to meet earlier and wrote to Scottish Government officials on four of these instruments. This this correspondence can be found in the Annex to this letter
The Committee looked at each of these instruments on 31 August and agreed that had it been able to scrutinise these instruments at the time it would have reported as follows:
Made affirmative
Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions and Requirements) (Local Levels) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 21) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/193)
In addition, the Committee also agreed to ask whether the Scottish Government intends to resolve the issues highlighted in SSI 2021/206 at the next legislative opportunity so that the inaccurate references referred to above might be clarified?
I would be grateful for a response on both these items by Friday 30 September 2021.
Yours sincerely,
Stuart McMillan MSP
Convener of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee