Meeting of the Parliament 07 February 2017
The result of the division is: For 90, Against 34, Abstentions 0.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament agrees with all but one of Scotland’s MPs that the UK Government’s European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill should not proceed, as the UK Government has set out no provision for effective consultation with the devolved administrations on reaching an agreed UK approach to the negotiations on implementing Article 50, has refused to give a guarantee on the position of EU nationals in the UK, has left unanswered a range of detailed questions covering many policy areas regarding the full implications of withdrawal from the single market, and has provided no assurance that a future parliamentary vote on the outcome of the negotiations will be anything other than irrelevant, as withdrawal from the EU follows two years after the invoking of Article 50 if agreement is not reached in the forthcoming negotiations, unless they are prolonged by unanimity; notes the widespread scepticism that an agreement on the future relationship of the UK and EU can be reached within two years; is concerned by the lack of any proposed transitional arrangements until such an agreement is in place, and believes that the decision to proceed with the bill does not respect the majority vote to remain part of the EU that was returned in every council area in Scotland.