Meeting of the Parliament 24 October 2023
As ever, John Swinney makes an important point. The fact that we have had to negotiate at length and in such detail over provisions that should have respected devolution in the first place is a sign of the UK Government’s starting point, which is to try to remove and undermine devolution and to remove the powers not only of the Scottish Government but of this Parliament. Every one of us, across the parties, should be concerned about that.
The UK Government’s commitment to make an order under the Scotland Act 1998 to reinstate specific powers of the Scottish ministers that were rendered inoperative following Brexit is an important step forward in the wider context of our Government’s capacity to assess and regulate critical offshore renewables projects and related infrastructure. Of all the changes that have been made, those are significant.
However, we have to get back to the point of part 1 of the bill, about which Kenneth Gibson made important points.