Meeting of the Parliament 03 October 2023
No—I will not. I want to make some progress.
As the Scottish Conservatives’ amendment states,
“the UK Government is investing directly in Scotland and is working with local authorities and other partners to enable people across Scotland to benefit”.
Poll after poll reveals one basic, simple point: people want the Scottish Government
“to work collaboratively and constructively with the UK Government”.
They like positive joint working. They also like programmes such as the city and growth deals and the green freeports.
The fact is that devolution is stronger than it ever has been—not least because the UK Government delivered powers to the Scottish Parliament in the Scotland Act 2016. Indeed, this Parliament is one of the most powerful devolved legislatures in the world. It is not the fault of the UK Government that, after 15 long years in power, the SNP has run out of ideas and is unable to make full use of the suite of powers that this Parliament possesses.
The Scottish Government’s motion returns to the debate over the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. Let me talk about common frameworks. The act does not undermine common frameworks: they are working and have been agreed. The UK Parliament passed that act without a legislative consent motion in order to protect Scotland’s trade with the rest of the United Kingdom. Some 60 per cent of Scotland’s trade is with the rest of the UK, and more than half a million Scottish jobs rely on it.
Let us remember that the Scottish Government tried to argue that there is no such thing as the UK internal market. The 2020 act properly seeks to address the tension between open trade and regulatory divergence. It creates two market access principles: the mutual recognition principle and the non-discrimination principle. Without those, businesses could suffer. In evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, both NFU Scotland and Confederation of British Industry Scotland spoke of the internal market’s importance precisely because the UK is a highly integrated market and it is imperative that we maintain the
“free movement of goods and services produced to the same ... regulatory standards”.
Let me touch on a few other issues, including section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 and the Sewel convention.