Hansard

This legislative consent motion has been discussed several times by the Economy and Fair Work Committee and I will place my concerns about it on the record.

The Scottish Government did not initially recommend that Parliament should consent to the LCM, due to the absence of a mechanism for the UK Government to seek consent from the Scottish Government when making regulations in devolved areas. That is not a trivial problem. The UK Government drafted a piece of legislation that covered devolved areas but did not ask the Scottish Parliament’s consent. At no point in the UK Government process did anyone—not the officials, not the ministers—recognise that they were legislating in devolved areas. It was either that or that they did not care. They entirely overlooked the fact that the Scottish Parliament has responsibility in devolved areas. Following two rounds of amendments, the legislation now at least requires the Secretary of State to seek the consent of Scottish ministers when making regulations in devolved areas.

I bring all that to Parliament’s attention because it is evidence of the creeping rollback of devolution and of the weakening of the powers of this Parliament. More and more powers are being seized by Westminster and this LCM demonstrates that. The matters covered by this LCM can be significant to Scotland’s devolved powers to protect its environment and to protect public health.

The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 has effectively shut down Scotland’s ability to move faster than England in protecting our environment and our public health. Legal instruments such as the LCM that we are discussing reduce the Scottish Government to consenting to what the UK decides to do in areas that are covered by the bill, instead of the Scottish Parliament being able, as we should be under the Scotland Act 1998, to diverge from UK legislation and set our own legislation at our own pace to protect our environment and our public health.

The fact that the Scottish Government is reduced to only having the power to consent to what the UK Government decides also means that we depend on it respecting the Sewel convention, which it has failed to do 11 times with no consequences. There is absolutely nothing that we can do if the UK Government decides to ignore our lack of consent.

As members of the Scottish Parliament, we should be concerned about the creeping loss of power from this Parliament. As residents and citizens of Scotland, we should be concerned that our devolved powers become less and less effective in protecting our environment and public health as Westminster takes those powers back for itself.

Devolution is not working for Scotland. Only as an independent country will Scotland have all the powers that we need to protect public health and the environment. The Scottish Greens will not support the LCM and will abstain on it at decision time this evening.