THE FUTURE OF INTER-PARLIAMENTARY RELATIONS IN THE UK
THE FUTURE OF INTER-PARLIAMENTARY RELATIONS IN THE UK The emerging quasi-federal organisation of the Legislatures in the United Kingdom is under new strain yet there are currently no formal mechanisms for the UK Parliament at Westminster and the devolved Legislatures in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to engage with each other on issues of mutual concern. A new report, published jointly by the Study of Parliament Group and the Hansard Society, sets out a proposal to develop and improve inter-parliamentary relations. The last quarter-century has seen a dramatic change in the constitutional architecture of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The New Labour government elected in 1997 moved swiftly to implement its promise of devolution to Scotland and Wales (following advisory referendums in each nation), establishing in 1999, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales, each with its own government drawn from the Members of those bodies. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 (also endorsed by referendums on both sides of the Irish border, and the 25th anniversary of which has recently been the focus of widespread celebrations) enabled the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland (where it had previously existed from 1922 to 1972). The then Secretary of State for Wales, Ron Davies, famously described devolution as “a process, not an event”. And so it has proved. The history of restored devolved government in Northern Ireland has been fraught, with the Northern Ireland Assembly suspended for seven of its 24 years of existence. However, in Scotland, and even more dramatically in Wales, the Governments and Legislatures have each gained significantly more powers to make laws in a wide range of areas within their jurisdictions. In 2006, the Welsh devolution settlement was completely redrawn, and in 2011, the National Assembly (following a further referendum) was given primary law-making powers similar to those already enjoyed by the Scottish Parliament. Following the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, both the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales were granted further extensive legislative competences (one of which the National Assembly used to rename itself the Welsh Parliament or Senedd Cymru). Meanwhile, and
Paul Evans, CBE is a
former Clerk in the UK House of Commons, from where he retired in 2020. He is a former Chair of the Study of Parliament Group and a member of the Hansard Society. He can be contacted at: brynheulog.evans@ btinternet.com.
120 | The Parliamentarian | 2023: Issue Two | 100 years of publishing
always controversially, England continued to be governed directly by the UK Parliament and Government. From the outset, mechanisms to coordinate law and policy across the now four jurisdictions within the UK were seen as necessary, with a Joint Ministerial Council established to facilitate inter-governmental relations. In the first years of devolution, when the Labour Party formed or headed the governments in the UK, Scotland and Wales there was relatively little friction, and the formal inter-governmental relations mechanisms were not much used. After the arrival of Scottish National Party-led government in Scotland and Conservative-led government for the UK, these informal relations began to come under pressure. While the UK was a member of the European Union, much of the legal base in wide areas (agriculture, environment, fisheries, trade, employment, to name a few) of government action was common across the UK, and was shared with the Republic of Ireland. The decision to leave the EU following the referendum of 2016 (in which majorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain) introduced a new complexity to the overlap and potential for conflict between laws made by the four Legislatures. The legislation giving effect to the withdrawal agreement was contested by both the Scottish and Welsh Legislatures and Executives, and subsequently the legislation enabling the UK government to enforce common standards within the UK internal market was also highly controversial. The COVID-19 pandemic also brought the distinctions between the four jurisdictions within the UK to greater public notice, as the four governments adopted different public health measures at different times. Although the differences between the measures adopted by them were mostly of detail, they did starkly highlight the need for
Sir Paul Silk, KCB is
a former Clerk at both the UK House of Commons and Senedd Cymru. From 2011 to 2014, he was Chair of the Commission on Devolution in Wales. He is a former President of the Study of Parliament Group and a Trustee of the Hansard Society. Email evanpaulsilk@gmail.com.