Devolution -
History & Powers of Devolved Assemblies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvhR1D54fGQ
Watch this lecture and take notes in response to the questions below.
4mins - 18 mins
What is devolution?
1) How does the lecturer summarise devolution?
Devolution arises from two fundamental questions about how a nation state should be governed.
At what level within a state should political power be exercised? And to who, and how should
the holders of that power be held accountable?
2) How is devolution different from other countries around the world?
In countries created from smaller established political units, like the Usa or Germany, the
question is how much power should be transferred upwards to the centre.
In places that start as centralised, unitary states, how much power should be devolved
downwards.
The UK is a hybrid, but at its core it is a strongly centralised state.
So devolution in the UK is about the de-centralisation of power- how much, where, to whom and
how?
Recent History of devolution
1) What effect has the creation of new devolved assemblies had?
Before 1998, political power in UK concentrated in Westminster and Whitehall (the executive
centre of government)
The sovereignty of parliament was and remains the cornerstone of the UK constitution:
-devolved powers emanate from parliament.
In the first term of the Tony Blair government, parliament passed three significant devolution
statutes:
1. Government of Wales Act 1998
Further legislation introduced to allow further devolution:
Government of Wales Act 2006, Wales Act 2014 + 2017
2. Scotland Act 1998
Scotland Act 2012 + 2016
3. Northern Ireland Act 1998
Northern Ireland 2009
How it works
1) What are some of the limitations of devolved assemblies?
-devolution doesn’t change the fact of parliamentary sovereignty.
All devolution settlements in S, W and NI create both a legislature (assembly/parliament) and an
executive (gov/ executive).
This legislature is empowered to pass ‘Acts’ which change the law, including existing Acts of the
Westminster Parliament. However, an Act is not law if it is outside the ‘legislative competence’ of
the assembly.
To fall within this competence, an act must not relate to reserved matters or breach EU law or EU
convention rights.
2) What are reserved matters?
‘reserved’ means reserved to the Westminster Parliament (i.e not devolved).
They should continue to be the responsibly of the UK parl at Westminster.
They include matters which are affected by its treaty obligations and matters that are designed
to ensure that there is a single market within the Uk for the free movement of goods.
National defense is a reserved matter
Everything not reserved is ‘transferred’ (devolved)
Reserved matters have been amended over time e.g. taxation is generally reserved, but Scotland and
Wales have now both been given powers by the UK parliament to vary income tax rates.
24mins-32 mins
3) What is the Sewell Convention?
The Sewel convention is a solution, adopted by the UK parliament that it will ‘not normally legislate about
devolved matters without consent of the devolved assembly. Westminster agree not to legislate on
devolved matters/ Uk parliament won't legislate on a devolved matter without the consent of the devolved
assembly
4) What has been the impact of Brexit and recent events?
5) What is the Declaration of Permanence?
States that although Scotland, Wales and NI have their own devolved assemblies, in theory, the UK can revoke
their powers. - states that nothing in UK law can prevent the UK Parl from revoking devolved powers
