Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 December 2020
I add my thanks to the Finance and Constitution Committee and the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee for all the work that they have undertaken on a bill that Conservative members never wanted to see. It is interesting that several parties across the chamber, perhaps for different reasons, never wanted to see it. However, I commend the work that has been put in. In some cases, that has been very constructive work that will make the bill better than it might otherwise have been.
I want to take up points that Labour members have made. I say to Mr Sarwar that I was firmly of the view that we should vote remain, and I am still very much of that opinion. Nonetheless, the UK did not vote to remain in the EU; it voted for Brexit, and we have to get on with it.
There is an expectation among the Scottish public. They would like to see the Westminster Government and the Scottish Government working together, so we have an obligation to ensure that any legislation that is passed in the chamber is good-quality legislation. Our reason for raising issues in parts 1 and 2 of the bill has been to ensure that anything that is passed is better, for example in relation to scrutiny. That is why Mr Lockhart lodged the amendments on additional scrutiny. We believe that there are still issues with that as the bill goes to its closing stage.
Ministerial powers are an issue. As far as we are concerned, there are still issues relating to the possible excess of ministerial power for the Scottish ministers. We do not accept that.
We had a great deal of concern about the fundamental principle of keeping pace. That means that, in some circumstances, we would keep pace with legislation and laws on which we would have absolutely no say. That in itself is a major issue.