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# 2.1 Scotland

Scotland is often referred to as the most devolved nation, as it was initially given the greater of the devolved powers. The Scotland Act 1998 established Scottish devolution and established a new Scottish parliament with 129 seats, so there are 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).

Figure 5 Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Government consists of the first minister and a number of ministers appointed by the first minister. Members of the executive include the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland. The monarch appoints the first minister. This is usually the leader of the party with the most seats.

Under the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Parliament was given the power to make laws (both primary and secondary legislation) in a number of devolved areas. These include: agriculture, forestry and fisheries; education and training; environment; health and social services; housing; law and order; local government; sport and the arts; tourism; and economic development – indeed, all areas that were not expressly reserved to the UK Parliament at Westminster under the Act. Areas reserved to the UK Parliament in the 1998 Act include taxation, employment, broadcasting, trade and industry, consumer rights, data protection, the constitution, defence and foreign policy, and social security.

However, since the Scotland Act 1998, a number of additional powers have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. These include the power to legislate for a Scottish rate of income tax (introduced under the Scotland Act 2012), while the Scotland Act 2016 provides that the Scottish Parliament may legislate for specified welfare benefits in Scotland, such as disability and carers benefit, as well as the power to ‘top up’ reserved benefits and to create other benefits.

Scotland’s devolution, and the powers given to the Scottish Parliament, have had an impact on Parliament. This is because Scotland has its own parliament and there are also Scottish members of Parliament (as is necessary, given that the Westminster Parliament passes law relevant to all of the UK). This means that England is the only nation without its own devolved legislature, determining law only relevant to that nation. This creates the imbalance that Scottish MPs are able to vote on legislation applying in England (and possibly Wales and Northern Ireland), whereas there are no English MSPs influencing purely Scottish matters in the Scottish Parliament.

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