J1/S2/04/14/A JUSTICE 1 COMMITTEE AGENDA 14th Meeting, 2004 (Session 2) Wednesday 21 April 2004 The Committee will meet at 9.30 am in Committee Room 1. 1. Subordinate legislation: Hugh Henry MSP (Deputy Minister for Justice) to move the following motion— S2M-1168 Cathy Jamieson: The Draft Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Travel Notification Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2004— That the Justice 1 Committee recommends that the draft Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Travel Notification Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 be approved. 2. Subordinate legislation: Allan Wilson MSP (Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development) to move the following motion— S2M-1169 Ross Finnie: The Draft Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land) (Scotland) Order 2004— That the Justice 1 Committee recommends that the draft Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land) (Scotland) Order 2004 be approved. Alison Walker Clerk to the Committee Tel: 0131 348 5195 Papers for the meeting— Agenda item 1 Note by the Clerk J1/S2/04/14/1 Agenda item 2 Note by the Clerk J1/S2/04/14/2 Documents not circulated— Copies of the following have been provided to the Clerk: • Audit Scotland, The Scottish Fire Services: Verification of the progress of modernisation; • HM Prison Service, Further Consultation Document: The proposed amendment of section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 by Order under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001; • Scottish Executive Environment Group, Access to Environmental Information – A Consultation. A copy of this document is available for consultation in room 3.11 CC. It may also be obtainable on request from the Document Supply Centre. Forthcoming business— Wednesday 28 April – joint meeting with the Justice 2 Committee, Committee Room 1; Tuesday 4 May – joint meeting with the Justice 2 Committee, Committee Room 1*; Wednesday 5 May – Justice 1 Committee meeting, Committee Room 2; Tuesday 11 May – joint meeting with the Justice 2 Committee, Committee Room 2. * denotes a change from forthcoming business previously indicated. J1/S2/04/14/1 Justice 1 Committee 14th Meeting 2004 (Session 2) The draft Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Travel Notification Requirements) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 Note by the Clerk Purpose of the draft instrument 1. This instrument aims to make provision for travel notification when registered sex offenders intend to leave the United Kingdom for 3 days or longer. Background The Sexual Offences Act 2003 2. The notification requirements of Part 2 of the 2003 Act re-enact, with amendments, the notification requirements of Part 1 of the Sex Offenders Act 1997. The 2003 Act requires relevant sex offenders to notify their personal details and changes of those details to the police. Section 86 of the Act provides for such offenders to notify the police of their intention to travel abroad and of their return. Provisions 3. The draft Regulations require a relevant offender subject to notification requirements who intends to leave the UK for three days or more to notify to the police, information about his or her departure from, and return to, the UK, and about which countries he or she intends to visit. 4. An offender is required to give a notification to the police at least seven days before the date on which he or she leaves the UK or not less than 24 hours in advance where the date of his or her departure is not known more than seven days in advance. 2001 Regulations 5. At present, the Sex Offenders (Notice Requirements) (Foreign Travel) (Scotland) Regulations 2001 made under the Sex Offenders Act 1997 provide for sex offenders to be subject to notice requirements for foreign travel. Under these Regulations, relevant offenders are required to give notification to the police of their intention to leave the UK for a period of eight days or longer. Notification is required not less than 48 hours in advance, or not less than 24 hours in advance where the date of his or her departure is not known more than seven days in advance. 6. The 2004 Regulations will replace the 2001 Regulations except that the 2001 Regulations will continue to apply to existing offenders intending to depart the UK on or before 9 May 2004 as specified in regulation 3. Amendment to the Regulations 7. The Regulations were laid on 11 March 2004, at the same time as the equivalent Regulations for England, Wales and Northern Ireland were laid at J1/S2/04/14/1 Westminster. The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI) subsequently raised a concern about the equivalent set of Regulations for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Home Office officials have agreed to amend their Regulations. 8. In order to avoid the creation of a loophole in the sex offenders register regime in Scotland and a consequent difference in the regime north and south of the border, the instrument was withdrawn and re-laid on 25 March. 9. The original draft Regulations required: • an offender who knows his travel details more than seven days before his date of departure to make his notification not less than seven days before departure. • an offender who made his notification not less than seven days before departure to notify changes not less than 24 hours before departure if the details provided become incomplete or are inaccurate. • an offender who does not know his travel details more than seven days before his date of departure to make his notification not less than 24 hours before departure. 10. An offender who fails to make his seven day advance notification when he did know his travel details is committing a criminal offence under section 91 of the 2003 Act – but section 91 provides a defence of reasonable excuse. The concern raised by the JCSI was that the original draft Regulations imposed no subsequent requirement to notify on an offender who knows the information seven days before departure but has a reasonable excuse for not notifying at that time, e.g. illness. 11. The police confirmed to the Executive that they were concerned that the Regulations as originally drafted could be exploited by offenders failing to notify. The police would not necessarily discover that an offender had travelled abroad, and even if they did find out it would be too resource- intensive to check in all cases whether the offender had a reasonable excuse for failing to make the seven day advance notification, or had committed a criminal offence by that failure. 12. To remedy this, a minor change has been made to the draft Regulations at regulation 5(2). Offenders who have a reasonable excuse for failing to make their notification seven days in advance, despite knowing the information they require to disclose before that time, will still be required to make their notification as soon as possible, but not later than 24 hours before departure. Financial consequences 13. The Scottish Executive’s note indicates that the instrument will have no financial consequences on Executive expenditure. Subordinate Legislation Committee 14. The Subordinate Legislation Committee considered this instrument at its meeting on 16 March 2003 and determined that the attention of the Parliament J1/S2/04/14/1 need not be drawn to it (Subordinate Legislation Committee, 10th Report, 2004 (Session 2)). Procedure 15. The Justice 1 Committee has been designated lead committee and is required to report to the Parliament by 26 April 2004. 16. The instrument was laid on 11 March 2004. Under Rule 10.6, the draft order being subject to affirmative resolution, it is for the Justice 1 Committee to recommend to the Parliament whether the instrument should come into force. The Minister for Justice has, by motion S2M-1168 (set out in the agenda), proposed that the Committee recommends the approval of the order. The Deputy Minister for Justice will attend in order to speak to and move the motion. 17. At the end of the debate, the Committee must decide whether or not to agree to the motion, and then report to the Parliament accordingly. Such a report need only be a short statement of the Committee’s recommendation. J1/S2/04/14/2 Justice 1 Committee 14th Meeting 2004 (Session 2) The draft Community Right to Buy (Definition of Excluded Land) (Scotland) Order 2004 Note by the Clerk Purpose of the draft instrument 1. This instrument defines land that is excluded from the community right to buy created under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (“the Act”). Background Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 2. Part 2 of the Act creates a community right to buy rural land. To take advantage of this right, communities must apply to register an interest in the land. Under section 33 (2) of the Act, certain land may by order be exempted from being registrable by means of designation as “excluded land”. Excluded land 3. The instrument provides that settlement areas defined by a General Register Office for Scotland report1 that are populated by over 10,000 residents are designated as excluded land. These settlement areas are listed in the schedule to the instrument and maps delineating the boundaries of excluded land are available for public inspection in the Scottish Executive library, in the Environment and Rural Affairs Department and in agricultural area offices. 4. The schedule will be updated periodically to reflect up-to-date information available from the General Register Office for Scotland, resulting in an amended settlements list and revised maps. It is planned that such maps will be available online in addition to being available for public inspection in the locations noted above. 5. Excluded land includes foreshore areas adjacent to any excluded settlement. Population threshold 6. It was originally proposed that the population threshold for defining land to be excluded from being registrable would be 3,000 residents.