Hansard

As I indicated, I have written twice to UK Government ministers. I met the relevant UK Government minister in the Commons previously and, today, I met Lord Johnson, the relevant UK Government minister in the Lords, to discuss the issues. In addition, officials have had extensive interaction on all the issues over some time.

The UK Government approached us with what it described as a compromise proposal. That is something that we have discussed with it through the dialogue that I mentioned. If we were willing to recommend consent to the bill, it would be willing to amend the bill so that the power would become exercisable by UK ministers in relation to devolved matters only if the Scottish ministers asked the UK ministers to legislate on their behalf, which would clearly be acceptable to us, or if, following a request from UK ministers, the Scottish ministers had failed to legislate within 15 days.

Although we might have been able to secure an improvement on the idea that the Scottish ministers would have only 15 days from the arbitrary date of any such request in which to consider, draft and make any legislation—a ludicrous proposal, of course—the UK Government was clear that it would not budge on the issue of consent. It is a significant matter of principle, so I was unable to agree to the UK Government’s proposal.

We have not ended up in this situation due to a lack of effort on our part. However, as long as the bill contains provisions to allow UK ministers to legislate in a devolved area without first seeking the consent of Scottish ministers, I cannot recommend that the Scottish Parliament give its consent to the bill. I believe it is worth noting that the Welsh Senedd has withheld its consent to the bill, as it falls under its legislative competence.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the legislative consent memorandum lodged by the Scottish Government on 13 June 2022; agrees not to give consent to the Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill, and calls on the UK Government to amend the Bill to confer the power in clause 1 solely on the Scottish Ministers in relation to devolved matters, or to otherwise make it a requirement for it to secure the consent of the Scottish Ministers when making provision within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, in order to properly respect devolved responsibilities.