129.Section 85(1) of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (the “
130.Section 85(4) of the 2009 Act allowed the Scottish Ministers to give directions to a scheme administrator and required a scheme administrator to comply with any such directions. This was a power on the face of the 2009 Act, rather than a provision about what the order may include as in subsections (2) and (3).
131.Section 25 of the Act replaces section 85(4) of the 2009 Act with a new subsection (4), which provides that an order under subsection (1) may include provision about the giving of directions by the Scottish Ministers to a scheme administrator. This means that whilst an order may make provision about the giving of directions where that is appropriate, Scottish Ministers will not automatically have the power to direct a scheme administrator.
132.This would allow a private body to be designated by order as a scheme administrator (without a direction-making power for Ministers), without the risk that it would be classified by the Office for National Statistics as a public sector organisation due to the potential Ministerial control which a direction-making power represents.