Aims and powers
Section 5 (Aims)
14.Section 5 sets out the aims of South of Scotland Enterprise.
15.Subsection (3) allows the Scottish Ministers to change, or clarify, its aims by regulations. Regulations doing so will be subject to scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament under the affirmative procedure (see section 22).
Section 6 (Action plan)
16.Section 6 requires South of Scotland Enterprise to have, and keep up to date, an action plan setting out what it proposes to do to achieve its aims (which are set out in section 5). Its general power to act under section 8 can only be exercised in ways that are consistent with the action plan (see subsection (1)(b) of section 8).
17.Subsection (2) requires that before making or modifying its action plan, South of Scotland Enterprise get the Scottish Ministers’ agreement to the plan or modification in draft. Before making its first action plan, South of Scotland Enterprise must consult about it in accordance with section 7.
Section 7 (Consultation on action plan)
18.Section 7 requires South of Scotland Enterprise to consult about its action plan at least every 5 years. The first consultation is to take place as part of the process by which the first action plan is prepared.
19.At the end of each statutory consultation, South of Scotland Enterprise is to produce a report setting out what, if anything, it intends to do in light of the consultation responses (see subsection (4)). One thing South of Scotland Enterprise may decide to in light of consultation responses is revise its action plan, which it is empowered to do at any time by section 6.
20.Subsection (2) of section 7 requires that South of Scotland Enterprise produce and make publicly available a consultation strategy ahead of carrying out a statutory consultation about its action plan. It must carry out its consultation in accordance with the strategy (see subsection (3)(a)). Subsection (3)(b) requires that South of Scotland Enterprise also seek views from Dumfries and Galloway Council and Scottish Borders Council, being the two local authorities whose areas comprise the South of Scotland as defined by section 21.
21.Subsection (6) of section 7 allows the Scottish Minsters to change the date on which South of Scotland Enterprise would otherwise be required by subsection (1) to begin its next consultation about its action plan. This is to ensure that there can be close alignment, as at the time the Bill for the Act received Royal Assent (i.e. July 2019) and after, between the planning cycles of South of Scotland Enterprise and Scotland’s other enterprise agencies (namely Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise) Should the cycles change and fall out of synchronisation, subsection (6) allows the Scottish Ministers to bring South of Scotland Enterprise’s consultation cycle back into alignment with that of the other enterprise agencies. Any change to the next consultation date is to be effected by regulations which, under section 30 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, must be laid before the Scottish Parliament.
Section 8 (General powers)
22.Subsection (1) of section 8 gives South of Scotland Enterprise powers to act in order to achieve its aims (which are set out in section 5) and to do other things connected to performing any of its other functions (for example, it may hire an accountancy firm to help it fulfil its function of preparing annual accounts under section 15).
23.Subsection (1)(b) limits South of Scotland Enterprise to acting in ways that are consistent with its action plan (see section 6).
24.Subsection (2) gives some specific examples of the things that South of Scotland Enterprise is empowered to do by subsection (1). The list is not exhaustive.
25.Subsection (3) restricts the ability of South of Scotland Enterprise to borrow money. It is permitted to do so from only two sources. The first is the Scottish Ministers. The second is its own subsidiaries. The word “subsidiary” is defined for this purpose by section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006. Loosely, in this context, it means a corporation that is to a certain degree under the control of South of Scotland Enterprise and so would include, for example, a limited company set up by South of Scotland Enterprise provided that the majority of voting rights in the company were held by South of Scotland Enterprise.
26.Subsection (4) gives South of Scotland Enterprise the power to charge for providing services.
