Meeting of the Parliament 09 January 2024
John Swinney makes his point clearly and persuasively. I am really keen that, given that the report was agreed unanimously—all the political parties were in agreement—we hear those points echoed from all sides of the chamber.
I have heard in some questions at various points during this session of Parliament a sense that the UK and Scottish Governments are jointly responsible for there being bad intergovernmental relations. However, it is crystal clear to us that the problem that we are dealing with is the UK Government’s approach. We need the other political parties in the chamber to support the Scottish Government to ensure that we can support the devolution settlement.
To reinforce John Swinney’s point, we, as parliamentarians, have a shared responsibility for protecting the integrity of this institution, which has served the people of Scotland for more than a quarter of a century. After all, we are here because the people of Scotland voted for this Parliament. It is their mandate that has given us democratic self-government in Scotland, and there is no mandate or justification for the steady erosion of the devolution settlement that we have seen since the Brexit referendum.
The committee’s report recognises the severe strain that the operation of the Sewel convention has been under since Brexit. It is essential for the effectiveness of the convention that it is scrupulously observed when there are policy disagreements between the Scottish and UK Governments, especially on matters of significance. The opposite has, in fact, occurred, with the convention being set aside in areas in which there are differences between the Scottish and UK Governments, and the powers and responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament are being adversely affected, most notably by the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. That is precisely the circumstance in which the convention was intended to operate as a safeguard for devolution.
Until 2018, we saw scrupulous observance of the convention by UK Governments of all stripes. Since then, however, the convention has, in the words of the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, “withered on the vine”. It is worth noting that routine breaches of the Sewel convention are a comparatively recent development. The convention was strictly observed—barring one quickly rectified error—for most of the first two decades of devolution. From there being no breaches between 1999 and 2018, the convention has now been breached 11 times. “Not normally” now appears to be emptied of all meaning.