Devolution in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has experienced a variety of forms of devolution over the last few years. Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London have all begun to work with new arrangements, new politicians, and new policies; and work towards Assemblies is under way in other English regions. This briefing paper seeks to summarise the bodies established by this process of "asymmetric devolution" (in which structures and powers are not decided on a formula but in response to different situations). The establishment, powers, voting system, financial arrangements and structure of each establishment are compared in the first part; the second investigates how civil society and the churches play their part in each case, with a short theological reflection; a final section offers websites and other resources for further information.

Scottish devolution has been debated for almost three hundred years. The movement gathered momentum during the 1980's and 90's with the increasing discrepancy between parties voted for in Scotland and the governing party at Westminster. The 1997 Labour government was pledged not only to introduce a referendum and Devolution Bill for Scotland, but specifically to implement the recommendations of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, embedding a proportional voting system and powerful committee system firmly within the Scotland Act. The referendum in Scotland was fairly decisive, with no region of Scotland voting against the establishment of a Parliament, and only two regions rejected the tax varying powers. Parliament has therefore had the advantage of solid public backing to justify its existence, despite a scornful media attitude.

The Scottish Parliament's powers are clearly delineated. A list in the Scotland Act (schedule 5) sets out those areas which are reserved to Westminster, and all other items are within the scope of Holyrood, although on a few occasions the Scottish Parliament has agreed to delegate items to Westminster to save Parliamentary time (a "Sewel" motion). Parliament also has the power, as yet unused, to vary the rate of income tax by 3p in the pound in either direction from the UK rate. Areas reserved to Westminster include: social security, defence, foreign affairs, consumer and employment law, and immigration.

Financial arrangements are central to any devolution settlement. At the moment all money spent by the Parliament is drawn from the Block Grant which comes from Westminster under the "Barnett formula". The Parliament's tax varying powers have not yet been used, and it seems certain that if a decision is taken to raise tax it will be 'ring-fenced' for a specific area such as education or health.

The Scottish Parliament has 129 MSPs. 73 are drawn from the same constituencies as Westminster MPs are elected from (with the addition of an extra seat splitting Orkney and the Shetlands into two), and the extra 56 are top-up MSPs, taken from regional party lists. There has been conflict between constituency and list MSPs over 'cherry- picking' of issues, and the Scotland Acts reservation of the power to fix the number of MSPs alongside the number of Scottish MPs at Westminster looks likely to provoke further conflict if used to impose a cut in the number of MSPs.

Labour is the largest party in the Parliament, with 55 seats. The Liberal Democrats form a coalition with Labour, making an overall majority with their 17 seats. The SNP have 35 MSPs and the Conservatives 18, with three other MSPs - a Scottish Socialist, a Green Party member and an independent (Dennis Canavan). The Presiding Officer (Speaker), Sir David Steel, does not sit as a Liberal Democrat, giving them effectively 16 seats. The Presiding Officer and First Minister are elected by the whole Parliament. The Committee system is a strong one, in which Committees can both initiate and scrutinise legislation. There are now 17 Committees in place, some of which are statutory (audit, finance, Europe), and some of which are subject (social justice, education); convenerships are shared among the parties.

The National Assembly for Wales did not come into being with the mandate which had been achieved by the Scottish Parliament, nor the background work of a Constitutional Convention. At the 1997 referendum, only 50.12% of the Welsh electorate voted, and the votes of those who did were split closely (50.3% for, 49.7% against). The strength of feeling against nationalism, which had prevented people from voting in favour of an Assembly in 1978, in 1998 had to struggle against the perception of democratic deficit which had resulted from both 16 years of Conservative rule and the increasing use of QUANGOs in Wales (one estimate was that 34% of government spending in Wales before 1997 was spent by quangos). However, polls suggest more solid support now, and indeed backing for more powers.

Devolution in Wales is technically described as "Executive Devolution": that is, the powers of the National Assembly are administrative and secondary legislative powers in areas which have been specifically devolved: economic development, agriculture, industry and training, education, local government services, health and social services, housing, the environment, planning and transport, and sport and heritage. Essentially this means that the Assembly has taken over the role of the old Welsh Office, as it lacks the power to legislate. The power to form secondary legislation, although being used, relies very much on the goodwill of Westminster to leave room for it in primary legislation. However, the former Secretary of State for Wales would have around 500 statutory instruments (secondary legislation) to approve in an average year, so the potential does exist for real changes to be affected there.

All spending in Wales is drawn from a block grant. The Assembly does have the duty to administer the block grant and give money to local councils, so the possibility exists for them to force local councils to raise council tax. However, Welsh local councils currently raise barely 20% of their revenues through local taxes, so this would never be a way of raising significant monies.

The Assembly is elected on the same variation of the Additional Member System as is used in Scottish Parliament elections, with 40 members directly elected by "first past the post", and 20 indirectly elected by the second, top-up vote.

Labour have 28 seats in the Assembly, forming a coalition (after a failed attempt at minority government) with the 6 LibDems; Plaid Cymru have 17 AMs, and the Conservatives 9. The National Assembly has a Presiding Officer and a First Minister - both directly elected by the whole Assembly. The First Minister selects his or her own cabinet. There are two types of committees in the Assembly - Subject and Regional committees. The regional committees are expected to represent the needs of their locality to the Assembly, the cabinet and the subject committees. They meet in the regions which they seek to represent.

Northern Ireland has been seen as 'a case apart' from the rest of the UK for many reasons, and this is particularly apparent when looking at devolution. Northern Ireland was the first part of the UK to get a devolved legislature back in 1920, an Assembly which lasted for 50 years before being disbanded. The Good Friday Agreement, in drawing up proposals for the new Assembly, specifically avoided the pattern which had allowed the Ulster Unionists to dominate the original Stormont Assembly, recognising the limits of majority democracy in a polarised community. While the Welsh and Scottish devolution Bills focused on the powers each Assembly would have, the Good Friday Agreement concentrates on the involvement of the British and Irish governments, checks and balances, and the exact workings of the power-sharing mechanisms. No other devolution scheme in the UK contains a provision that every party which gains more than a certain percentage of the vote will get its own ministry. No other devolution settlement has such an international dimension. Whereas in Scotland the Consultative Steering Group was set up to draft standing orders before the Parliament opened, in Northern Ireland the Assembly met in full plenary session for six months to agree its own ways of working. The referendum on the Good Friday Agreement to approve the Assembly had an 81% turnout and 71% voted in favour. This vote was skewed across communities, however – one exit poll suggested that up to 96% of Catholics had voted yes, and perhaps only 55% of Protestants.

The Assembly has full legislative and executive authority in those matters previously within the remit of 6 Northern Ireland government departments: Agriculture; Economic Development; Education; Environment; Finance and Personnel; and Health and Social Services. The Secretary of State remains responsible for Northern Ireland Office matters not devolved to the Assembly. These include matters such as policing, security policy, prisons, criminal, justice, international relations, taxation, national insurance, regulation of financial services and the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting.

The old Stormont Assembly had very minor finance-raising powers – its largest source of independent income was motor licences – and the new Assembly also has limited finance raising powers. The Executive administers the Northern Ireland block grant, apportioned by the Barnett formula, and has the power to raise money by use of public or private financial initiatives, congestion and other charges (Green Taxation), and a Regional Rate.

With 108 members, the Northern Ireland Assembly is the only institution (so far) in the UK to be elected by the Single Transferable Vote system of proportional representation.

No mainland political parties stand for election in Northern Ireland. The Ulster Unionist Party have 28 seats and provide the First Minister (ordinarily), the Social Democratic & Labour Party 24, the Democratic Unionist Party 20, Sinn Fein 18, The Alliance Party 6, the Northern Ireland Unionist Party 3, the United Unionist Assembly Party 3, the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition 2, the Progressive Unionist Party 2, the UK Unionist Party 1, and the Independent Unionists 1. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister are elected by the Assembly. Ministers are nominated by the parties, although there are stipulations on the number of ministers there should be from each side of the sectarian divide. There are 10 departmental committees, 6 standing committees and considerable use is also made of ad hoc committees.

The London Assembly and London Mayor are linked inextricably. The Mayor is not a member of the Assembly, but is elected directly during the same elections. Proposals for a Greater London Authority had to deal with the varied history of the GLC and other authorities; this is a major reason for the uniqueness of the constitutional arrangements in London now. Support for the arrangements is relatively shallow - 72% of voters in a referendum supported the establishment of the London Assembly and Mayor, but on a 33% turnout.

Again this is a complex area, as the Mayor is a separate entity from the Assembly, and yet each is reliant on the other. The Assembly exists in the main to scrutinise the Mayor's actions. It can discuss and amend the Mayor's budget - but can only overturn it on a two-thirds majority. The Mayor has a responsibility to produce strategic plans for Transport, Planning, Economic Development and Regeneration, etc. However this is generally a power only to appoint members to strategic boards, develop plans - and the fact that the most crucial area to Londoners, transport, contains a caveat giving the Secretary of State for the Regions a veto shows just how limited the powers of both the London Mayor and Assembly are. Both the Mayor and the Assembly have extensive powers to appoint members to a number of forums. There are 10 Assembly question time sessions each year at which the Mayor must answer questions.

The Mayor manages a huge budget, but has very limited powers to raise additional monies. Sources of income are: central government grants (for general costs or for specific purposes); a ‘precept’ on borough council tax, for existing London-wide activities currently funded jointly by the London boroughs, and new charges and levies (eg road user charging and workplace parking levies). In 2000 it was expected that 20% of the GLA income would come from council tax, the remaining 80% being from central government funding.

There are two voting systems at work in London elections: a direct Supplementary Vote for the Mayor (with a first and second preference, once all votes are in if no candidate has over 50% of the vote then all bar the top two are eliminated and the eliminated candidates second preferences will be taken into account) and an additional member system for the Assembly. Unlike Scotland, the Assembly votes are both cast on the same sheet of paper. There are 25 London Assembly representatives: 14 constituencies (each consisting of 2-4 London Boroughs) elect a representative, and there are 11 additional members provided from a London-wide list. There is a 5% barrier to prevent extremist groups gaining the balance of power. Unlike Scotland and Wales, winning a constituency seat does not guarantee the seat will stay won, as if for example, Labour gets 44% of the list or "London Member" votes (excluding votes cast for parties failing to reach the 5% threshold), it will win 11 (44%) of the seats. However many constituency seats Labour has secured will be subtracted from that 11, and the remaining Labour seats will go to the highest placed candidates on Labour's list. This remarkable tangle of voting systems has been criticised as overly complicated. There was a 36% turnout in the first elections for the Mayor and London Assembly.

There are 25 members of the Assembly, making the London arrangements unique, with more voters per Assembly representative than per MP. There are 9 Labour members, 9 Conservatives, 4 LibDems and 3 Greens. The Assembly has 10 committees, all with a careful balance of parties, from Appointments to Economic Development. The Deputy Mayor is drawn from the Assembly members.

Voluntary groups and churches have been involved with the Scottish Parliament since before its inception, through the Constitutional Convention which paved the way for the Parliament. Since then, the extensive system of Cross Party Groups at the Parliament (currently 42) has created a series of forums where civil society and politicians can discuss issues. Parliamentary Committees regularly invite civil society groups to give evidence, and the Executive has a Voluntary Issues Unit. The Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations has developed an extensive Parliamentary Information and Advice Service, and there is also an informal network of policy and parliamentary officers from the Third Sector in Scotland which meets regularly to discuss engaging with Parliament more effectively. The Scottish Civic Forum brings together a wide range of groups to discuss policy issues; it also has a major project to assess levels of participation in the new political process. There is a broad acceptance that the voluntary sector is involved in policy implementation, and a compact has been agreed with the Executive, setting up standards of good practice in ensuring participation. The Social Justice Committee are currently holding an inquiry into the operation of the voluntary sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament's petition system has been much praised. 241 petitions were sent to the Scottish Parliament in its first year, and a quarter of these were from voluntary groups, including churches. Petitions sent to the Scottish Parliament are dealt with by the Public Petitions Committee, which decides how it should be dealt with and has to ensure that an adequate response is given. Petitions are generally referred to the Committee best equipped to deal with them; they have led to Committee inquiries, public meetings and Parliamentary debates, and are also used in Committee consideration of Bills.

Through Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS), the Scottish Churches established a Parliamentary Office with the remit of enabling the churches to engage effectively with Parliament and policy-making, and this office now provides a wide range of services to the churches and individuals in this area. The Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Alliance and CARE each have their own Parliamentary Officers, more directly involved in lobbying, alongside the SCPO's enabling role; other faith communities work through the Scottish Inter Faith Council. The Scottish Churches have submitted petitions, given evidence to Parliament committees on a number of occasions, and been represented on groups reviewing policy, eg the group discussing sex education guidelines for Scottish schools.

The National Assembly for Wales was required by the Government of Wales Act to set out proposals to promote the interests of the voluntary sector. This scheme was drawn up in consultation with the Voluntary Sector, and is now a binding document. Among other commitments, there is an acceptance that ministers will meet with representatives from relevant sector groups at least twice a year. The Voluntary Sector Partnership Council has now drawn up a formal standing orders and protocol, and a nomination scheme has been agreed for voluntary sector representatives. The Welsh Council for Voluntary Organisations also has a Voluntary Sector Assembly Centre, which provides briefings on Assembly issues and aims to assist individual voluntary organisations from any part of Wales to make representation to Assembly Members. There are specified Voluntary Sector Liaison Officers in the National Assembly for Wales, with the specific remit of assisting co-operation between the voluntary sector in Wales and the National Assembly. More information on Welsh Voluntary Sector links with the Assembly can be found in the superb briefing "Devolution in Practice - an update" on the WCVO website.

Petitions to the National Assembly for Wales are addressed to the Presiding Officer, but are in practice dealt with by the Table Office. The Presiding Officer must inform the Assembly as soon as possible on receipt of a petition. Petitions are not used as widely in Wales as they have been in Scotland – only 19 petitions had been presented by 29 November 2001. These tended to be submitted by community-based organisation, (often on a single local issue such as council tax), national organisations and individuals.

The Welsh Churches established the "Churches National Assembly Centre", which provides a service to member churches updating them on Assembly activity as well as keeping the churches' viewpoint represented in the Assembly. Recently proposals were made during a meeting between the Welsh First Minister and faith communities that there should be an inter-faith forum established, to meet three times a year containing representatives from all faith communities in Wales and all political parties. There is now an acceptance by the Assembly that the churches should be involved in national life at all levels – eg a circular specified that where an education authority has policy development groups, church representatives should be included on those in recognition of their important role as education providers. The Churches in Wales have been involved in a number of issues, conspicuously including asylum seekers. The Churches Officer is extremely active in attending Assembly meetings and produces briefings on topics of interest to the Churches in Wales.

Northern Ireland is unique in the structures which were contained within the Act establishing the Assembly, designed to ensure that there was a forum for dialogue with sectors outside the Assembly. The establishment of a Civic Forum was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement, as another balance to the Assembly, and, when the Joint Ministerial Committee was listing the achievements of each devolved legislature, its third sentence concerning Northern Ireland was on the Civic Forum. The Civic Forum has 60 members, 5 of which are nominated by the Churches, and it meets in committees to discuss the work of the Assembly. Members have been nominated from business; agriculture/fisheries; trade union; voluntary/community; churches; culture; arts and sport; victims; community relations and education. The First and Deputy First Ministers are also members. Once nominated, however, members do not represent the group from which they were nominated, they are simply individual members. While this has benefits in encouraging free and open discussion, it has had the negative result that members have no statutory obligation to report to the organisation they come from, and there have been concerns about a lack of information flowing in both directions. The Civic Forum cannot directly affect legislation, but its reports are sent to all Assembly Members.

There is no single office in Northern Ireland assisting all churches with Assembly relations. All the churches have, however, been active in engaging both with the parties before the establishment of the Assembly and n responding to individual issues. It seems to be widely accepted by political parties that there is a role for the churches to play in policy formulation. This is demonstrated in the area of education: the Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church have been historically involved in the operation of schools. Reflecting this, school boards (there are 5 in Northern Ireland) now have representatives from all denominations, politicians and other individuals. There is a seismic shift now going on in post-primary education in Northern Ireland and all the churches have responded to a wide ranging review. The new collegiate system which is being brought in will impact on the independence of all denominational schools, but is still being welcomed by most within the churches. The churches - separately - contributed to the discussions before the actual drawing up of the Easter Agreement. The Church of Ireland in particular invited representatives of each political party to discuss the future arrangements, and these discussions led to an acknowledgement by the parties that the churches should be involved in the eventual settlement. When a Civic Forum was suggested, the churches were also involved in designing the system. The churches in Northern Ireland have also been heavily involved in the preparation of the Human Rights draft Bill.

The establishment of the Greater London Assembly (GLA) and Mayor has been seen in some circles as a forerunner of other English city local government reformations. The situation in London should therefore be closely watched as the possible testing ground for the rest of England.

The London Mayor has a duty to consider consulting voluntary sector groups before exercising any powers. The Mayor's cabinet (which has a purely advisory role) has one member specifically to advise on the Voluntary Services Council. One of the principal powers open to the mayor is that of making appointments to various bodies, and the current incumbent, Ken Livingstone, has made several from the voluntary sector, including the head of Shelter as the chair of a group working on homelessness. The London Voluntary Service Council has a GLA Liaison Section, which at the moment still seems to be concentrating on informing the voluntary sector in London about the GLA. The Council has also established a Civic Forum, which aims to monitor the Assembly and Mayor effectively, advise them on specialist issues, and encourage cross-sector partnerships. The Forum has members from business, the voluntary sector, and the faith communities. The Council has also established a Third Sector Alliance of voluntary and community groups, which both submits responses on Assembly strategies and is in the process of developing a Compact for London between the Assembly and the voluntary sector. The difficulty is that, although there are so many forums and groups there is very little actual policy being formulated in London, so their impact is necessarily diminished - demonstrated by the fact that one of the major issues in London at the moment is transport, and while there is a London Transport Users Committee which was established with the GLA, the actual power to make provisions on PPP for the London Underground was reserved in the act to the Secretary of State for Transport.

The London Churches Group for Social Action has been established to facilitate church involvement with the Assembly and Mayor. It has a small working group which has sent comments to the GLA on consultations, and has also established links with the Government Office for London and Minister for London. They have submitted responses on the London Development Agency plan, the Mayor's Transport Strategy and the initial ideas for a spatial development strategy. A future submission will be on the Cultural Strategy, a consultation on which is being headed up by the Mayor and a Cultural Strategy Group. There is also a mapping exercise under way aiming to collect information about social action projects which are organised by churches for the benefit of the greater community. Most of the funding for this project will be provided by Greater London Enterprise, which is owned by the London Boroughs. (This demonstrates the need in London to consider the boroughs as well as the Assembly).

Theological Reflection

The churches in Scotland played a significant part in the process of devolution, with the Kirk's General Assembly, for example, giving support for nearly fifty years to the creation of a Scottish Parliament. Churches are also playing a significant role in the processes currently under way in English regions towards Assemblies. Yet it is not as immediately obvious why this should be so as, for example, it is why churches should be concerned for the poor.

Perhaps the most crucial contribution the churches made to the movement which gave birth to the Scottish Parliament was a theological one, locating the devolution debate in the context of an understanding of sovereignty. In this traditional Scots understanding, which starts from the sovereignty of God, divine sovereignty is seen as entrusted to the "community of the realm" (citizens of Scotland), who may then trust the administration of their affairs, from time to time, to a variety of individuals or institutions. This understanding, which underpinned the "Claim of Right" and the Constitutional Convention, seems far more appropriate to the complexities of power and authority in the globalised world than the inflexible Westminster doctrine of the sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament. It certainly recognises that power and decision-making are to be shared.

The understanding of subsidiarity which is widely used in Europe as a corrective to centralisation of power was developed substantially in the theological thinking of the Roman Catholic Church. Rooted in a Christian view of people and of power, it recognises that decision-making should remain close to those most affected by decisions, linking constitutional issues like devolution to ongoing debates about community empowerment and the respective roles of the state and voluntary bodies in welfare.

Aled Edwards, in his theological perspective on Welsh devolution, speaks of transforming power and of the transforming of power; he recalls that Jesus "looked Pilate in the eye and dared to ask questions about the nature and origins of his use of power". Devolution offers us much more opportunity to look Pilate in the eye, to speak truth to power and to seek the kingdom of God in new ways that invest institutions with God's demand for justice.

The Scottish Parliament: www.scottish.parliament.uk

The Scottish Executive: www.scotland.gov.uk

Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations: www.scvo.org.uk

Scottish Civic Forum: www.civicforum.org.uk

Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office: www.actsparl.org

The National Assembly for Wales: www.wales.gov.uk

The Welsh Council for Voluntary Action: www.wcva.org.uk

The Welsh Churches National Assembly Centre: www.nationalassembly.freeserve.co.uk

Northern Ireland Assembly: www.ni-assembly.gov.uk

Civic Forum: www.civicforum-ni.org

Northern Ireland Office: www.northernireland.gov.uk

Northern Ireland Council of Voluntary Agencies: www.nicva.org

London Assembly: www.london.gov.uk

London Civic Forum: www.londoncivicforum.org.uk

London Voluntary Sector Council: www.lvsc.org

Bogdanor, N: Devolution in the United Kingdom

Edwards, A: Transforming Power

Hazell, R: The state and the Nations.

Thompson, K and Taylor, B (eds): Scotland and Wales: Nations Again