Meeting of the Parliament 04 February 2026
I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Liberal Democrats in support of the motion. I was one of the original signatories to Andy Wightman’s bill in the previous session of the Parliament. At its heart, the bill is about a simple idea: that the power to make decisions that affect communities should always sit as close as humanly possible to the people whom those decisions serve.
Too often, under successive SNP Administrations, power in Scotland has gone the other way. It has become too centralised, and local government has been treated less like a democratic partner and more like a delivery arm for the Scottish Government. We have heard a lot about the Verity house agreement, but it has had a coach and horses driven through it several times. I therefore welcome the motion, and the signal from the cabinet secretary of the Government’s support.
As we have heard, the Parliament passed the bill back in 2021, and it had strong cross-party backing. Since then, we have had the Supreme Court judgment, which was clear that certain provisions, particularly sections 4 and 5, went beyond the limits of the Parliament’s power in how they interacted with United Kingdom legislation.
The reconsideration stage gives us a chance to finally respond to that judgment responsibly, but without losing sight of what the bill is trying to achieve. The proposed amendments to the bill do just that. They are focused and proportionate, and they closely follow the approach that the Parliament took in its reconsideration of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill. Although it is regrettable that, by necessity, the amendments will narrow the scope of the legislation somewhat, it is still a big improvement on not having the legislation enacted at all and, clearly, we cannot proceed with another bill that might not be competent.
I acknowledge the decision to amend section 2. I understand the reluctance to narrow its scope and I share the frustration that that creates, particularly among our council colleagues, but it is right to be honest about the risk of further legal challenge. Another referral to the Supreme Court would help no one, least of all local government, which has already waited long enough for the bill to progress. What is important is that the bill still marks a significant step forward. It embeds the principles of the European charter into Scots law and strengthens the culture of respect, partnership and mutual trust between national and local government.
Agreements such as the Verity house agreement already point us in that direction but, as we have seen over the past few years, the Government can run roughshod over those principles. The motion is not about reopening old arguments; it is about finishing the job properly within our powers and sending a clear signal that the Parliament believes in strong and empowered local government. For those reasons, we will, of course, support the motion.