Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, Edinburgh - Briefing One

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Parliamentary Officer:Rev Graham Blount
Phone:
0131 558 8137

Briefing Document No 1 - May 1999 - Page 2 of 4

Singing the Lord's Song in a New Scotland - Continued.

In terms of the Act [s28 (7)], Westminster can also still legislate in these areas, but this seems politically improbable. Lord Sewel has said "we 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".

Clearly there are possibilities of conflict. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council will ultimately adjudicate on issues of competence, and a series of concordats is being drafted to define working relationships between Whitehall Departments and the Scottish Executive. The Scottish Office has been optimistic that all will be well because "everyone wished the settlement to succeed and would therefore behave reasonably", but the (Westminster) Scottish Affairs Committee has expressed concern that "there is no provision for an open forum at parliamentary level for the public discussion of matters of common concern".

While the Act has been described as "a settlement not a process", there have also been reminders that changes to the range of powers are possible. In terms of the (English) doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament can unilaterally make any changes, including repeal of the whole Scotland Act. Politically, it seems unlikely that any changes will be made without the consent of both Parliaments, and (in the case of repeal or a move to complete independence) a possible further referendum.

Voting System
129 MSPs will be elected on a voting system which mixes first-past-the-post MSPs for 73 constituencies (as for Westminster, with a minor adjustment for Orkney and Shetland) and 56 additional members elected from regional party lists by a form of proportional representation. The party composition of the Parliament should therefore reflect the overall voting pattern. The Scottish Office is in the process of trying to explain this system to the electorate; in particular, there is concern that the second vote may be viewed, wrongly, as a second preference. Hustings meetings may offer a further chance to explain this - further details are available from the SCPO.

What remains to be seen is how the dynamics of a Parliament elected this way will differ from Westminster, especially if, as seems probable, no one party has an overall majority of MSPs. Will this increase the power of the Parliament vis-à-vis the Executive, and the power of individual MSPs vis-à-vis party managers? Or will the pressure to hold a coalition together reinforce party discipline?

There will also be two types of MSP - constituency MSPs and "list" MSPs - and different parties will have them in vastly different proportions. A recent newspaper projection suggested that almost all Conservative MSPs will be elected via lists, while most Labour MSPs will represent constituencies. Voters who find their constituency MSP is not of the party they support may find it helpful to relate to a regional list MSP with whose views they are more in sympathy. The Scottish Office hopes that there will not be two tiers of MSPs, but there are real possibilities of conflict over demarcation. No clear guidelines have been laid down although it has been said that list MSPs might get more involved in policy and less in constituency matters.

Role of Individual MSPs
Much, then, remains to be seen as to the role of individual "back-bench" MSPs. The arithmetic of 129 MSPs rather than 600+ suggests that each MSP will have a more significant role than as "lobby-fodder", and the important role given by the CSG to Committees will probably encourage specialisation. Geography, and hopefully an increased level of interest in the new Parliament, will underline the commitment to accessibility, of Parliament as a whole and therefore of each MSP.