Agenda item 4 is consideration of the delegated powers in the Education (Scotland) Bill at stage 1.
Members will have seen the delegated powers memorandum and the briefing paper. The committee is invited to agree the questions that it wishes to raise with the Scottish Government on the powers. It is suggested that these questions be raised in written correspondence; the committee will have the opportunity to consider the responses at a future meeting before the draft report is considered.
Section 7 relates to initial assessments of the need for Gaelic-medium primary education—or GMPE—and applies when an education authority receives a parental request under section 5. When such a request is made, the authority is required to make an initial assessment of the need for GMPE, both within the area designated as the GMPE assessment area under section 6 and within the specified child’s year group. Section 7(5) provides that when, following an initial assessment, the authority is satisfied that the various conditions in section 7(6) are met, it must determine that there is a potential need for GMPE in the area.
Two conditions are set out in section 7(6)(a) and (b). Section 7(6)(a) provides that the child specified in the request and the children resident in that GMPE assessment area who are in the same year group as the specified child, and in respect of whose parents the authority holds information about demand as mentioned in section 5(3), must total five or more. Section 7(6)(b) provides that the demand for GMPE in respect of children in a different year group is at or is likely to increase to a level that the authority considers reasonable.
Section 7(7) provides that the Scottish ministers may by regulations amend section 7(6)(a) to substitute a different number for the number of children specified, and the power also enables ministers to provide that the number of children specified is to be read as a different number in the application of that subsection to such education authorities as may be specified in the regulations.
In essence, the power enables the Scottish ministers to change the threshold figure for determining whether there is demand for GMPE in a particular area that is sufficient to justify securing GMPE, or to apply different threshold figures for different education authorities. Although the power, which is subject to the negative procedure, does not alter the substance of the duty placed on education authorities to determine that there is a need for GMPE in a particular area when a certain threshold is reached, it is nonetheless significant to the practical operation of part 2 of the bill and its scope and application.
Does the committee agree to ask the Scottish Government for further justification of the choice of negative procedure for the exercise of this power, given its apparent significance and the fact that it permits the variation of the threshold figure beyond which an education authority must determine that there is a potential need for GMPE in a particular assessment area?
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