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Scotland Bill fails to deliver on Smith says Swinney

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John Swinney

The UK government’s Scotland Bill amendments fail to deliver on the Smith Commission proposals according to Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

Mr Swinney has said that amendments to the Scotland Bill fall short of implementing the Smith Commission proposals.

The Scottish government has concerns in the following areas:

  • The bill does not codify the Sewel Convention as it has operated since 1999

  • There remain restrictions on the Scottish Parliament’s powers to make ‘all matters relating to the arrangements and operations of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish government’

  • The UK government can still effectively veto the exercise of devolved powers over Universal Credit and there are constraints in the devolution of social security discretionary payments

  • There is not yet an amendment to give the Scottish Parliament new powers to create benefits in devolved areas

  • There is not full devolution of Crown Estate

  • There are significant restrictions on employment support, particularly the restriction to programmes that last at least 12 months.

    • Mr Swinney said: “The sole purpose of the Scotland Bill is to implement the Smith Commission in full. In June, I proposed amendments to do that.

    “In areas such as social security, employment support and the Crown Estate, the Scotland Bill does not fully devolve new powers and restricts the ability of future Scottish governments to exercise power without interference.”

    David Mundell

    However the Scottish Secretary David Mundell has said they will make Holyrood one of the world’s most powerful devolved assemblies in the world.

    Ahead of a vote on the bill in the House of Commons next week, Mr Mundell told BBC Scotland there would be “about 80 amendments” to the bill but acknowledged some would be “very technical” such as altering punctuation marks.

    He added: “I would say that about half of them are significant changes and half of them are technical.

    “I think the most significant change is putting on the face of the bill that the Scottish Parliament will have the power to create new welfare benefits in devolved areas in accordance with clause 54 of the Smith Commission agreement.”

    The powers are due to come into force from April 2017 but the SNP has said it will block the bill if it thinks Scotland would lose out in the changes.

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