Scotland,devolution,constitution
Lords to take evidence on a future Scotland Bill
4 February 2015
The House of Lords Constitution Committee will question leading academics Professor Michael Keating and Dr Mark Elliott as part of its scrutiny of the draft clauses of a future Scotland Bill.
Witnesses
Wednesday 4 February at 11am in Committee Room 1, Palace of Westminster:
- Professor Michael Keating, Director of the Economic and Social Research Centre on Constitutional Change
- Dr Mark Elliott, Reader of Public Law, University of Cambridge
Possible Questions
Areas the session will cover include:
- The constitutional changes set out in the Smith Commission Command Paper and whether these have received sufficient consultation and scrutiny.
- Whether, given the ‘Vow’ made by the UK leaders of the main unionist parties, Parliament will be able properly to scrutinise and amend provisions in a Scotland Bill after the general election.
- The potential impact on the UK as a whole of the new devolution settlement proposed by the Smith Commission, and whether devolution should proceed on a pan-UK or nation-by-nation basis.
- The impact of stating the Scottish Parliament and Government’s permanence in legislation and of putting the Sewel Convention on a statutory basis.
- The potential impact of lowering the voting age in Scottish Parliament and local government elections on the voting age in other elections across the UK.
- Changes that should be made to the structure and practice of inter-governmental relations in light of recent and proposed changes to the devolution settlements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.