Legislation / Legal
ScotParl: Serious concerns as to whether the Creative Scotland Bill will meet its objectives have been expressed by the Scottish Parliament's Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee in its Stage 1 Report published.
The committee believes that the bill lacks clarity in a number of important areas and will require significant amendment at Stage 2 of the parliamentary process to sharpen its focus and clarify a number of issues.
Press release ~ Creative Scotland Bill ~ Education, Lifelong Learning and Culture Committee in its Stage 1 Report ~ ScotGov: Arts and Culture ~ Scottish Arts Council ~ Scottish Screen ~ Creative Scotland Transition Project ~ Bòrd na Gàidhlig
MoJ – OLSCC: The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner, Zahida Manzoor CBE, has announced that she would be imposing a penalty of £275,000 on the Law Society following her decision to declare its complaints handling Plan for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 inadequate to secure the effective and efficient handling of complaints.
This is the second time in two years that the Commissioner has used her powers to impose a penalty on the Law Society - it previously paid a £220,000 fine for submitting an inadequate Plan for the year 2006/07.
Press release ~ Text of the letter from the Commissioner to the Law Society dated 3 June 2008 ~ OLSCC – Law Society performance ~ Law Society's Legal Complaints Service (LCS) ~ Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) ~ Law Society
Defra: The Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 came into force on 3 June 2008. The 2007 Regulations exempted certain mutilations from the general ban on all mutilation of animals contained in the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Mutilation in this context means the carrying out of a procedure which involves interference with the sensitive tissues or bone structure of an animal.
The 2008 Regulations have the effect of allowing:
* certain artificial insemination techniques in sheep and goats
* the wing & web tagging of non-farmed birds for conservation purposes (including education & captive breeding programmes) and for research.
* the wing & web tagging of farmed birds involved in breed improvement programmes and for identification for disease testing purposes.
* the neck tagging & web notching of farmed ducks involved in breed improvement programmes
Certain drafting changes have also been made in order to ensure compliance with relevant EU Directives on the welfare of pigs and laying hens - these amendments are not intended to affect current farming practice.
ScotParl: A statutory Scottish register of tartans has come one step closer with the publication of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee’s Stage 1 Report on the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill introduced to the Parliament by Jamie McGrigor MSP.
The Bill proposes to establish a Scottish Register of Tartans and a Keeper of the Register of Tartans to maintain & oversee the register and new registrations. It also sets out the procedures for registering new tartan designs.
As well as registering new tartans, the Register will incorporate the approximately 3,000 tartans held in the Scottish Tartans World Register (STWR) and the 6,000 tartans held in the Scottish Tartans Authority's (STA) register. The historic archive will be kept at Register House under the auspices of the National Archive of Scotland.
