The legislative wheels of the Scottish Parliament are set to turn with greater speed and efficiency in future, with the advent of a new scrutiny system. For the past three years, the parliament's legislative scrutiny committee has been examining the current eight levels of scrutiny system inherited from Westminster, and comparing it with practices in Europe, Canada and Australia. The result is a recommended new simplified scrutiny process for secondary legislation which will make it easier to identify which pieces need fuller debate and which can be processed quickly. Secondary legislation is legislation, normally formed in Europe or Westminster, which must then be incorporated into Scottish law, including areas such as enforcement, penalties and charges. A Scottish Parliament spokeswoman said: ‘It is something which will push through legislation more quickly and efficiently for local authorities. ‘And it will help parliament examine things in greater depth, so there should be fewer problems for local authorities trying to put it into practice.' The new scrutiny system is expected to go through parliament in the next few weeks, and introduced before the May elections take place.
