Dear Sir/Madam,
Consultation: Transport legislation - Review of special parliamentary procedure provisions
I write in relation to proposals, in which we believe you may have an interest, that are being considered for possible inclusion within the Scottish Executive's proposed Transport & Works Bill.
A formal consultation paper on the forthcoming Transport & Works Bill was published on 24 February 2006 [1]. The principal proposal of the Bill seeks to replace the current mechanism for approving transport projects (which occurs through a Private Bill in the Scottish Parliament) to, as recommended by the Procedures Committee of the Scottish Parliament, an Order-making process performed by the Scottish Ministers.
In addition to that principal proposal, we are also considering whether to include measures to remove the requirement for special parliamentary procedures in Acts relating to transport interests, and instead permit the Scottish Ministers, after due inquiry, to determine the matters requiring resolution. The relevant Acts under consideration are:
- Harbours Act 1964
- Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
- Pilotage Act 1987
The attachments to this letter provide at annex A an overview of special parliamentary procedure and invite, at annexes B to D, your views to possible proposals in regards of specific provisions within each of the Acts mentioned above. We have repeated some of our questions in the annexes for each of the issues under consideration in the knowledge that you may restrict your comments to only those matters which relate directly to your interest in harbours, roads or pilotage. Annex E contains a summary of the questions asked in the earlier annexes together with additional more general questions. Annex F contains details of the Scottish Executive's Consultation Process, Annex G contains the Respondent Information Form and at Annex H can be located information on the consultation response.
Due to the relatively technical nature of these considerations and their limited general interest, we are only undertaking a restricted consultation and, because of the likely introduction of the Bill in the summer, we have set a deadline of 14 April 2006 for all formal responses so that we might have an opportunity to pursue further discussions with interested parties.
Yours sincerely
Frazer Henderson
Transport & Works Bill
[1] http:// www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/23161534/0