Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Scottish Qualifications Authority (Transfer Date) (Scotland) Order 1997 and shall come into force on 1st April 1997.

Transfer date

2.  The date prescribed for the purposes of section 17(1) of the Act as the transfer date shall be 1st April 1997.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order prescribes the date (the transfer date) when the property, rights, liabilities and obligations of the Scottish Examination Board (SEB) and the Scottish Vocational Education Council (SCOTVEC) are transferred to the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) under section 17 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1996. Under section 18 of the Act, staff are also transferred at that date. Under section 19, the transfer date is also the start of the “winding down period” during which SEB and SCOTVEC remain in existence but have only limited functions of facilitating transfer to SQA and exercise by SQA of its functions. SEB and SCOTVEC will be dissolved at a later date to be fixed by order of the Secretary of State.

By virtue of the Education (Scotland) Act 1996 (Commencement No 2) Order 1997(2), 1st April 1997 is also the date when SQA takes up its substantive functions under the Act.