Report: New Powers for Scotland - Artikel

On 18 September 2014 there was the Scottish Independence Referendum. The previous UK Government came with a process culminating in the publication of a cross-party agreed report of the Smith Commission and the publication of draft legislative proposals by the then UK Government to take forward the recommendations of the Smith Commission.
The Devolution Committee should scrutinise the recommendations of the Smith Commission and any subsequent proposals for further legislation.

Over the course of 7 months, involving nearly 20 committee meetings, around 50 submissions of written evidence and fact-finding visits and public meetings in Hamilton, Aberdeen and Lerwick, we have carefully considered views on the Smith Commission‘s recommendations and how these have been translated into proposed law by the previous UK Government. 


The culmination of this process is the publication of this Interim Report on the Smith Commission and the then UK Government's Proposals. The report is an initial step as its findings do not necessarily represent the Committee‘s final view on these matters or on the question of whether the Scottish Parliament should give its legislative consent to these proposals. Such considerations await our scrutiny of any bill that is introduced by the new UK Government following the May 2015 UK General Election. 


The purpose of this report has been to provide a considered and constructive commentary for the new UK Government on the current package of measures being proposed for further devolution and where these can be improved. All of the Committee wants to see both, the letter and the spirit of the Smith Commission‘s report, fully translated into a legislative package in the next UK Parliament. In the time available between the publication of the then UK Governments’ proposals and the dissolution of the UK Parliament for the last General Election, the Committee has not been able to consider detailed evidence on all aspects proposed for further devolution. We have focused on:

• The permanency of the Scottish Parliament and the Sewel Convention (legislative procedures)

• Taxation and borrowing

• Welfare and benefits

• The Crown Estate

• Inter-governmental relations and parliamentary oversight.

In some of these areas, the Committee believes that the current draft legislative proposals meet the challenge of fully translating the political agreement reached in the Smith Commission. In other areas, improvements in drafting and further clarification are required. In some critical areas, the then UK Government‘s draft legislative clauses fall short. 

Our key conclusions and recommendations are set out in the final section of the report. In addition, Annexe A provides a summary position of the Committee‘s detailed conclusions and recommendations against the question – do the draft clauses fully meet both the letter and the spirit of the agreement reached by the five political parties represented in the Scottish Parliament during the Smith Commission‘s work? 


Next steps

As a result of the UK General Election, the Committee will re-commence with its detailed scrutiny of all the provision in any Scotland Bill’ that may be introduced by the new UK Government in its first Queen‘s Speech. The Committee expects to issue a further call for evidence in mid-2015 and to take further evidence during the remainder of 2015 and early 2016, with a view to issuing a Final Report on any bill and the issue of legislative consent before the Scottish Parliament is dissolved in advance of the Scottish Parliamentary elections of May 2016. Throughout this process, the Committee intends to continue with its practice of as wide as possible public engagement, with further meetings and visits across Scotland.