Scottish devolution explained...

The Bill that will eventually grant Scotland its own parliament for the first time in 300 has been published. BBC Scotland's Political Editor, Brian Taylor, explains the contents of the Scotland Bill.

What's in the Bill?
Who will sit in the parliament?
Which policy areas are to be devolved?
Who will run the parliament?
Who's paying?
Taxation
Relations with Europe
What happens to the Secretary of State?
Reaction to the Bill

What's in the Bill?

The Scotland Bill contains 40,000 words of precise, legislative prose. It apparently took 60,000 person hours of Ministerial and official effort to produce: or one word every hour and a half. It has one hundred and sixteen clauses. There are eight back-up schedules setting out the consequences of devolution in minute detail.

Yet when Donald Dewar, the Scottish Secretary, stood up in a Glasgow hotel to publish the Bill he turned his attention in particular to Clause One, subsection one. It reads simply: "There shall be a Scottish Parliament."

The Bill translates into legislative language the promises previously outlined in the White Paper which was published in July 1997. Ministers - and, more discreetly, officials - have expressed a certain pride that they are able to point clearly to the links between the Bill and each substantial promise in the White Paper.

Who will sit in the new parliament?

So the Bill, as with the earlier document, presages a directly elected Scottish Parliament with 129 members. They would be elected by a variant of Proportional Representation with 73 subject to First Past the Post in single constituencies as for Westminster and 56 from eight top-up regional lists.

The lists would be used to match parties' seats with overall voting share. The Bill indicates that independents would be able to form groups - or even take their chance as one-person lists. All elected MPs would take the oath of allegiance to the Crown, as at Westminster.

The Bill abolishes the artificial restriction which has guaranteed Scotland a disproportionately large number of MPs at Westminster. When constituency boundaries are redrawn for the general election after next, it's expected that the number of Scottish seats at Westminster will fall from the present 72 to around 57 or 58.

Which policy areas are to be devolved?

On the main topic - what is to be devolved - the Bill proceeds by defining in detail those issues which are RESERVED for Westminster decision-making. That reverses the procedure of the devolution Bills of the 1970s which faltered partly from attempting to list those powers which would be TRANSFERRED to Scotland.

So after devolution Westminster will retain power over: the Constitution including the Crown, foreign affairs including relations with Europe, the civil service, defence, macro-economics including almost all tax and Budgetary matters, social security, child support, abortion, embryo research, broadcasting, pensions laws, the regulation of financial services, the currency, drugs control, data protection, firearms, immigration, national security and counter-terrorism, betting and gaming laws, extradition, competition law, import and export controls, consumer protection including weights and measures, telecommunications regulations, electricity, most oil and gas regulations, nuclear energy, most road, rail, air and marine transport laws, regulation of many professions, health and safety, judicial pay, ordnance survey, time - and, finally, "the regulation of activities in outer space".

Everything else by definition is devolved. That means the Scottish Parliament will have full legislative and administrative control of domestic issues like health, education, the criminal law, home affairs, local government, economic development, the environment, agriculture, sport and the arts.

The Bill broadly leaves it up to the Scottish Parliament to determine its own working arrangements and legislative approach. But there are a few details of the nomenclature laid down in statute.

Who will run the parliament?

Scotland's Parliament will be chaired by a Presiding Officer - not the Speaker of Westminster - assisted by an official Clerk. This individual will be elected by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) at the first sitting. Together with four other MSPs, the Presiding Officer will form the Corporate Body which administers the Parliament - and will have initial responsibility for deciding whether proposed measures go beyond the scope of the Parliament's competence.

The Parliament will also elect a First Minister - who will head the Scottish government. The current Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewar, has recently made it clear that he will stand for the post. The government will be formed by an Executive comprising departmental Ministers and Scotland's law officers who will retain their independent power of action in such fields as criminal prosecution. These Ministers and officers will be appointed by the First Minister subject to approval by the Parliament. In addition, there will be Junior Ministers to provide assistance.

Should the Parliament fail to elect a First Minister within 28 days, the Bill provides that there would be fresh elections. This isn't entirely an impossibility given that the proportional representation system might well produce a hung Parliament even on Scotland's current voting pattern.

Who's paying?

Funding will come - as at present - by Block Grant from the common UK Treasury. This funding will be channelled through the Secretary of State. It's envisaged that the Barnett Formula which determines the annual changes in the Scottish budget in relationship to the changes in comparable English budgets will stay.

But the Block and Formula provisions are not in statute. Donald Dewar insists this is quite reasonable, pointing out that the Block and Formula isn't presently covered by statute. Opposition parties however, say they will attempt to amend the Bill to place Scotland's funding on a more fixed basis.

Taxation

The Bill confirms that the Scottish Parliament will have the power to vary the basic rate of personal income tax by a maximum of 3p in the pound. There is no power over corporation tax.

The Bill defines those who will come under this variation - should it be operated by a future Scottish Parliament. You'll pay if you are a UK resident whose "closest connection" is with Scotland. This is generally defined by residence or spending the majority of your year in Scotland.

A special clause provides that Westminster MPs from Scottish constituencies - who of necessity may spend the majority of their year in London - are nevertheless liable for the tax.

Relations with Europe

There are several other controversial issues. The Bill specifies that the Parliament will have an obligation to enact reforms arising from Britain's European commitments which impact upon Scottish domestic matters. But the legislation is less precise about the Edinburgh Parliament's links with Europe.

A Schedule to the Bill outlines potential involvement in European Council talks. Donald Dewar stresses that such matters generally proceed by consensus, by discussion. But the White Paper made plain that the UK government would continue to take the lead. There would be a common UK position in Euro talks.

The Nationalists in particular are keen to clarify whether Scottish Parliament Ministers can attend European Council talks as a right, rather than by invitation from the UK delegation. Mr Dewar argues this misses the point: that the UK delegation will WANT to consult with Scotland and will want to enlist Scottish expertise as at present.

What happens to the Secretary of State?

There's potential controversy too over the office of Secretary of State for Scotland. At present, the Scottish Secretary is a member of the United Kingdom Cabinet - treading a line between acting as Scotland's person in the Cabinet and the Cabinet's person in Scotland.

Labour has repeatedly stressed that they envisage the post continuing - despite forecasts from other parties that the job will steadily become redundant.

The Bill is legislatively precise: defining tasks which will require to be undertaken post-devolution by "the Secretary of State" without defining that that individual requires to be the SCOTTISH Secretary of State. This could mean technically that any member of HM Government at Westminster holding such rank could exercise the powers of legislative challenge discussed below.

It's envisaged that the Secretary of State will provide liaison between Edinburgh and London and will have the power to challenge Scottish legislation if it's felt that the planned reforms breach Britain's international treaty obligations or tread into areas reserved to Westminster.

Any disputes which couldn't be tackled by negotiation would be resolved by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Westminster would appoint an Advocate General to advise the UK Government on the Scottish legal system. This individual would have the power of reference to the Judicial Committee which comprises law lords from both Scotland and England. A similar power of reference would be available to the Scottish law officers, the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General.

The question marks over the office of Scottish Secretary fall into two categories. Maximum devolutionists will question why there should be a supervisory role for such an individual. They will jib at the potential interference involved. Donald Dewar says he doesn't envisage conflict.

Minimum devolutionists - who harbour continuing fears that the Union with England may still be under threat - may complain that the office of Secretary of State for Scotland isn't precisely defined: that Scotland may end up losing her individual voice within the UK Cabinet where key decisions will continue to be taken.

Donald Dewar stresses that it is not for Scottish devolution legislation to prescribe actions by a future UK Prime Minister: that it is a matter for the PM to determine the shape of his/her Cabinet, to decide whether a Secretary of State for Scotland is needed.

The Tories - lacking MPs in either Scotland or Wales - already combine the shadow roles for these areas within a wider constitutional brief. It might be feasible that relations between Westminster and Scotland/Wales/English regions could in future be handled by a single Cabinet office.

The underlying issue here - as with the tax and European questions - is political rather than legislative. If you think the devolution settlement will broadly work, then you believe that an atmosphere of trust and consensus will develop which will allow such questions to be resolved. If you harbour doubts, then perhaps you probe these issues more precisely.

Reaction to the Bill

In introducing the Bill, Donald Dewar described it as a "genuinely historic document", a radical piece of legislation which should be a source of pride to the whole nation.

Political reaction was intriguing. The Liberal Democrats - Labour's partners in the cross-party Constitutional Convention which drafted devolution plans while in Opposition - offered a broad welcome.

Historically and understandably, the Nationalists have distrusted devolution - fearing it as a distraction from their overall objective of an independent Scottish state. But they have opted to carry through their positive approach from the Referendum to the Bill itself, while obviously questioning aspects of the legislation.

The SNP's line will be that devolution can yet prove a stepping-stone to independence. Labour contests this.

Perhaps the most intriguing reaction comes from the Conservatives. Despite endorsing devolution in the 1960s, they have virtually defined themselves of late as the anti-devolution party. They stressed in Government that they regarded devolution as a back-door way of abolishing the Union.

But their party's obliteration in Scotland at the general election - and Scotland's vigorous endorsement of devolution in the September Referendum - has prompted a rethink.

The party recognises in public what, privately, some of their key strategists suspected in private: that the only route back for the Scottish Tories is to identify with the apparent mood in Scotland for self-government and to offer a distinctive right-of-centre, free-market appeal to voters within that new Scottish polity.

So the Tories - as with the LibDems and the Nationalists - will be questioning but positive. They claim to detect significant flaws in the Bill and are pledged to remedy these in the interests of making devolution work.

The Bill, then, has had a good start. It is comprehensively detailed, it matches the promises outlined in the White Paper, the launch was effective and well-handled. Scottish press reaction was mostly adulatory. Opposition political reaction ranged from support to quizzical tolerance.

It seems too that this approach will persist in the Commons - although of course one can never discount the difficulties which can be posed by back-benchers who have not been involved in talks through "the usual channels" designed to ease the passage of the legislation.

The Government has bluntly warned the House of Lords against interference. In response, senior Tory peers have indicated somewhat huffily that they need no reminder from Ministers as to their duties and responsibilities.

The Second Reading will be in mid-January. The Bill should be on the statute books by the summer or the autumn of 1998. The elections will be held in the first half of 1999 and the Scottish Parliament should take full responsibility from the start of the year 2000.

It should be borne in mind that this isn't independence. The Bill of course proceeds by specifying those powers which will be retained by Westminster. There are provisions for UK governmental intervention. Clause 35 notes that the Acts confirming the Union between Scotland and England in 1707 will remain in effect, subject to the reforms contained in the Bill.

But most informed opinion in Scotland seems prepared to accord varying degrees of credit to Donald Dewar's claim that in 300 days of legislative drafting the Government has produced a framework which looks like providing Scotland with her first distinctively elected Parliament for 300 years.