Sewel motion
Encyclopedia
A Legislative Consent Motion (also known as a Sewel motion) is a motion
Motion (parliamentary procedure)
In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. In a parliament, this is also called a parliamentary motion and includes legislative motions, budgetary motions, supplementary budgetary motions, and petitionary...

 passed by the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

, in which it agrees that the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 may pass legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 on a devolved issue
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...

 extending to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, over which the Scottish Parliament has regular legislative authority.

Background

The Scotland Act 1998
Scotland Act 1998
The Scotland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament.The Act will be amended by the Scotland Bill 2011, if and when it receives royal assent.-History:...

 devolved many issues relating to legislation for Scotland to the Scottish Parliament. The UK Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 maintains Parliamentary sovereignty
Parliamentary sovereignty
Parliamentary sovereignty is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. In the concept of parliamentary sovereignty, a legislative body has absolute sovereignty, meaning it is supreme to all other government institutions—including any executive or judicial bodies...

 and may legislate on any issue relating to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, with or without the permission of the devolved assemblies and parliaments.

The motions were named after Lord Sewel, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland is a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, supporting the Secretary of State for Scotland...

 who announced the policy in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 during the passage of the Scotland Act 1998. Noting that the Act recognised the Parliamentary sovereignty of the UK Parliament, he said that the UK Government:
would expect a convention to be established that Westminster would not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament.


The Scottish Parliament has no say in how the UK Parliament legislates on reserved matters
Reserved matters
In the United Kingdom reserved matters and excepted matters are the areas of government policy where Parliament had kept the power to make laws in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales....

 (those matters that were not devolved by the Scotland Act 1998).

Use and application

There are two uses for a Legislative Consent/Sewel motion:
  1. It is used when the UK Parliament is considering legislation extending only (or having provisions extending only) to England and Wales
    England and Wales
    England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

    , and the Scottish Parliament, being in agreement with those provisions, wishes for the UK Parliament to extend them to Scotland. This saves the need for separate, similar legislation to be passed by the Scottish Parliament.
  2. It is also used when Westminster is considering legislation applying to Scotland but which relates to both devolved and reserved matters, where it would otherwise be necessary for the Scottish Parliament to legislate to complete the jigsaw.


As well as legislation about devolved matters, the convention extends to cases where UK Bills give functions to Scottish Executive, including in reserved areas, or which seek to change the boundary between reserved and devolved matters.

The intention was for the motions to be used for non-controversial matters, for the purposes of legislative economy and for clarity. It has been used for more controversial matters, where the Scottish Government does not wish to have the Scottish Parliament to consider the issue in detail, to avoid the political consequences, and to keep the legislative bickering to Westminster only.

Guidance on the use of Legislative Consent Motions for Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

 Departments is set out in Devolution Guidance Note 10.

The Scottish Parliamentary procedure is specified in Chapter 9B of the Parliament's Standing Orders.

Current situation and review

In 2005 the Procedures Committee undertook an inquiry into the use of Sewel motions, and heard evidence from Lord Sewel, Henry McLeish
Henry McLeish
Henry Baird McLeish is a Scottish Labour Party politician, author and academic. Formerly a professional association football player, McLeish was the Member of Parliament for Central Fife from 1987 to 2001 and the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Fife from 1999 to 2003, during which...

 (the former First Minister of Scotland
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...

), and Anne McGuire
Anne McGuire
Anne Catherine McGuire is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Stirling since 1997.-Early life:...

 MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
The Under-Secretary of State for Scotland is a junior ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, supporting the Secretary of State for Scotland...

). Following the review, the motions were retitled Legislative Consent Motions and the procedures enshrined in the Parliament's Standing Orders.

25 June 2011, 107 Legislative Consent/Sewel motions had been passed by the Scottish Parliament, 39 in the first session (1999-2003), 38 in the second (2003-2007), 30 in the third (2007-11) and none so far in the fourth (2011-16).

See also

  • Neil MacCormick
    Neil MacCormick
    Sir Neil MacCormick, QC, FBA, FRSE , or just Neil MacCormick, was a legal philosopher and Scottish politician. He was Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh from 1972 until 2008...

    , who has argued that parliamentary sovereignty is an "exclusively English doctrine".

External links

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