This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Debate on Sewel Motions
10/05/2005
Sewel motions are a practical way to get more
legislative 'bang for our buck', provided that key
safeguards are observed, Minister for Parliamentary
Business Margaret Curran said today.
Giving evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry Ms Curran
emphasised that every proposal (set out in a 'Sewel
motion') was scrutinised and could be vetoed by Holyrood
and that the Scottish Parliament remained able to pass its
own laws at a later date if it saw fit.
Ms Curran said:
"We are always happy to look at our procedures to see
how they can be improved. It is something that happens
already, and we will keep on doing so.
"But Sewel motions have been a practical way to get more
legislative bang for our buck.
"We've got our own legislative programme that we want to
get through. That's rightly our priority. But from time to
time, Westminster proposes laws of its own which could
benefit Scotland.
"That gives us a chance and a choice, either to copy
those laws up here - with a consequential impact on our
legislative programme, or to coordinate with Westminster to
incorporate Scottish provisions into their Bills.
"Because we scrutinise what is proposed, and because the
Scottish Parliament loses no powers to legislate later,
Sewel Motions can give us a 'win-win'.
"We get to deliver our own programme to help Scotland,
we get Westminster to work on our behalf, and we get better
coordinated and more up-to-date laws than if we went it
alone."
Examples of areas where Sewel motions have helped
Scotland are:
- Transferring powers to manage Scotland's rail
network to Scottish Ministers, allowing greater
coordination of work to improve infrastructure north of
the border.
- Producing an integrated series of anti-crime
measures in the Serious Organised Crime and Police
Bill, with strengthened regulation of the private
security industry. • Introducing a single, modern
statutory framework for civil protection across the UK,
fully integrating reserved and devolved powers.
•Tackling the activities of those who traffic in human
beings for the purpose of exploiting them.
As well as coordinating legislation in devolved areas,
some Sewel Motions actually increase the scope of
devolution by conferring additional executive functions on
Scottish rather than UK Ministers, e.g. to improve railway
infrastructure, or to direct Lottery spending in
Scotland.
The rate of Sewel motions has remained steady since the
mechanism was introduced, at about 10-12 per year.
The Minister was speaking at the Scottish Parliament's
Procedures Committee inquiry into the operation of the
Sewel Convention.