The Process Of Establishing Devolution In Scotland

The devolution is the transition / delegation of power to a lower level. It is a process which is designed to decentralise government and gives off more power to the 3 nations including England. Since 1999 the United Kingdom’s ways in how it was run has significantly changed since devolution.

Scottish Nationalism had a large increase in the 1970s, especially after the discovery of the North Sea oil. The SNP launched a campaign called “Its Scotland’s Oil”, it was an extremely beneficial campaign which emphasised the then oil boom that had the ability to boost and regenerate Scotland’s economy.

The encouragement for the devolution was split both ways by Labour party and SNP party. The Labour party ended up being divided between the people that were favouring a Scottish Assembly and the people that didn’t want to weaken the central control. The SNP party was also split for support for the devolution. They were split between the people that saw the devolution as a possible opportunity for Scotland to head towards full independence and the people that thought of it as negative distraction from the country’s ultimate goal. The Conservative Party leadership swung against devolution.

Wilson resigned in 1976, this then brought James Callaghan in to power. An arrangement was made in 1977 to hold a referendum on the devolution, this referendum was held two years later in 1979 which resulted in a winning 52% to 48%. This narrow win in favour of the devolution was then negotiated due to the rule of 40% of the electorate total must approve it in order to secure validity, this then resulted in a turnout of 63.6% with only 32.9% voting in favour. The Scotland Act of 1978 was repealed in March of 1979 due to a parliamentary vote of 301-206. Due to many unfortunate circumstances eg – electors living in older tenements or newer council flats (door numbers were not specified) meant that to achieve 40% electorate was extremely difficult and practically impossible. The electoral registration staff worked hard to try and gather an accurate up to date register, but it was near enough impossible to achieve, the same was for many Scottish large towns and inner cities. In protest to the “No” campaigners who had responded stating voters had been told previously to the referendum that if they failed to vote then their vote was essentially a “No”, this made SNP MPs withdraw their support from Callaghan government and instead, decided to support a vote of No Confidence by the Conservatives, which was passed on March 28th 1979 (by only one vote) this forced the 1979 May General Election that Margaret Thatcher won.

There was a second referendum which was held in 1997 that had a very strong proposal leading to an overwhelming victory of 74% voting yes for a Scottish Parliament and 63% voting for the parliament to have the powers that could vary basic rates of income tax, this then lead to the passing of the 1998 Scotland Act and in 1999 an established Scottish Parliament.

The Scotland Act of 1998 was the act of establishing a Scottish Executive and Parliament. The act consisted of sifting power from the UK parliament to the new developed parliament of Scotland. It handles how the parliament is elected as well as the powers the parliament has, also the relationship between the already existing UK parliament and the government. The act was passed at Westminster by the UK Parliament. There are 6 sections to the Scotland Act; miscellaneous and general, supplementary, elections, the Scottish administration, tax varying power and financial provisions. It saw the formal end of the old Scottish office and with that the rise of the new Scottish government and parliament.

Scottish Parliament and the Executive

The main, most important function that the Members of Scottish Parliament has is to pass and amend or repeal any laws which relate to anything in Scotland that is identified as a devolved issue, an example of this could be health or education.

Straight after a Scottish Parliamentary election MSP’s are required to then elect a Presiding officer from their ranks. They also must construct an Executive from the members of whichever party has gained the highest number of seats. Another duty that the MSP’s have is to create committees to scrutinise proposed legislation and the Scottish Executive’s performance.

An Executive is someone or a group who has the power and authority manage affairs in an organisation and also the ability to make decisions within boundary limits. (Business Dictionary, 2019). The Scottish Executive in government is the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. She represents Scotland as well as developing and representing policies. She also appoints ministers eg – the Deputy First Minister as well as all MSP’s. One cabinet secretary is John Swinney who is also the Deputy First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for education. Another secretary of Cabinet is Michael Matheson whose role is the Cabinet’s Secretary for transport. Nicola Sturgeon will also appoint key figures such as Senior Judges. She will also chair cabinet meetings

Impact of the devolution on Scotland

One policy initiative from the Scottish Parliament that was a result of the devolution on Scotland is the limit on drinking and driving, this policy was established in the December of 2014. The new limits on drink driving are: 50mg of alcohol within every 100ml of blood (now bringing Scotland up to the same level with most of the other European countries), 22 mcg of alcohol in every 100ml of breath and 67 mg of alcohol in every 100 ml of urine. The reduction policy followed an independent review of the Drink and Drug Driving Law which had been conducted in 2010 by Sir Peter North and the passing of the Scotland Act in 2012 that then devolved the power to set the blood alcohol limit for driving in Scotland to the Scottish Parliament. Sir Peter North concluded that by reducing the drink drive limit from 80mg to 50mg would save lives due to found evidence that drivers are six times more likely to die in a road traffic accident with a blood alcohol concentration between 50mg and 80mg than with zero blood alcohol. Other evidence found by Medical Association that supports the reduction in alcohol limits being safer for people as it indicated that the relative risk of being involved in a road traffic crash for drivers with a reading of 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood was 10 times higher than for drivers with a zero blood alcohol reading. With around three quarters (74%) of respondents in favour of a lower drink drive limit when consulted on proposals to lower the drink drive limit in 2012 supports the fact of the lowering in drink driving limits was a beneficial policy to bring to life. It is believed that this new policy will create a positive change helping to make roads in Scotland safer. In Scotland on average, just over one in eight deaths on Scottish roads in recent years involved drivers over the legal limit, which equals an average of 20 deaths each year. Estimates that have been made by the North Report to Scotland indicates between three and 17 lives could be saved each year on Scottish roads from a lower limit of 50mg/100ml, as well as reducing the number of people injured on the road in drink driving accidents. (Gov.scot, 2018).

Another policy that was introduced from the Scottish parliament was The Smoking, Health and Social Care Bill which was introduced in 2006. Since 26 March 2006 smoking has been prohibited in substantially enclosed public places in Scotland. When this policy was introduced it was estimated that there would be significant health improvements associated with reducing exposure to both environmental tobacco smoke and personal tobacco consumption as well as other contributing social and economic impacts. (Oxford Academic, 2006).

A health manager named Andy Kerr had said that this ban had the ability to help smokers give the habit up which would then protect others from passive smoking that occurs. The legislation had 97 approved votes and with 17 opposing votes from the Conservatives. Any employers who fail to enforce this legislation would face penalties that could be up to £2,5000 if they are caught smoking in prohibited areas may end up with fines that can be up to £1,000 to £1,000 and can also be charged if they only light a cigarette in a pub, restaurant, theatre or even a public toilet. Dr Peter Terry said that the legislation was such a huge landmark in Scotland and that it would greatly benefit every member of the public suggesting that healthcare amongst Scotland would improve. (BBC News, 2005).

One reserved power is the constitution which is a set of rules that seek to establish. It organises, distributes and regulates the state’s power. It sets out the structure of the state, the major state institutions and the principles governing their relations with each other and with the state’s citizens. A constitution for a free Scotland would come into effect following Scotland’s transition to independence, it would set out the rights of citizens of an independent Scotland and define the powers and responsibilities of government and parliament.

Another reserved power is equal opportunities. Scotland has a group ‘Creative Scotland’ which puts equality at the heart of its activity and aims to acknowledge and reflect the diversity in Scotland today in all of the work with the arts, screen and creative industries. Through the ‘Equality Outcomes’ group in Creative Scotland they ensure that funding supports more accurately the things that reflects the diversity of contemporary Scotland, they also ensure that opportunities to engage with, and participate in,(arts, screen and creative industries), throughout the country are more inclusive and accessible to everyone as well as the employment patterns in the arts, screen and creative industries to better represent the diversity of Scotland, and that all staff have a genuine understanding of, and commitment to, equalities.

In order to deliver these outcomes to the Scottish people Creative Scotland requires any company or organisation which is looking to receive funding from them to have an already existing Equal Opportunities policy, these organisations should comply with the Equality Act 2010. (Creative Scotland, 2019).

Impact of the electoral system on the Scottish political system

The additional members system has a mixture of first past the post and proportional representation where the majority wins are much less likely to occur. AMS works by giving out a ballot paper to all voters which on it asks them to record two votes. The first being the constituency vote (voting for an area or constituency MSP), the person who has the majority votes will win. The second vote is for a political party, it’s used in order to draw an overall conclusion and representation to make all the political parties fair. Once all of the constituency votes have been tallied, other MSP’s are distributed to each of Scotland 8 parliamentary regions in order to make the overall result fairer for every party. Example of this is from 2016 when the Conservative party were granted two additional MSP’s in the North East Scotland region due to them failing to return any constituency MSP’s, this helps to give the Conservative Party voters a much fairer representation in comparison to their political support in North East Scotland. A strength to the additional members system is that it gives voters a wider variety. The starting vote, people may decide to vote for one of their local area representatives from one of the parties and then for their second vote, they may decide to change to a different party. A disadvantage of AMS is that it makes the elections much more complex and complicated due to having two votes and having multiple representatives can confuse some voters.

The concepts of unionism and separatism

Unionism is the policies and practices of trade unions that have been put in place in concern with protecting and furthering the rights of workers. It is supported by the Conservative party who had opposed a Scottish Parliament. In regards with Scotland it believes that Scotland is much better in the union as a part of the UK.

Separatism is the separation of a certain smaller group from a larger one based on reasoning such as ethnicity or religion. It is the push for an Independent Scotland this is in support from the SNP’s. An example of this would be the separation that would take place during Brexit as Scotland would be separated from the rest of the EU.

Devolution was in support from the Labour party and it was in favour of the union but also in favour of a Scottish parliament. Scottish unionism politically opposes Scottish independence which means that some people may not support this unionism due to Scotland not voting for Brexit therefore leading them to decide to leave the country in order to re-join the EU as its own separate country, people would decide to do this due to them wanting to continue as a union as they believe it to be more beneficial for the economy.

Bibliography

• Business Dictionary. (2019). [Online]. Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/executive.html [Accessed: 2 April 2019].
• Gov.scot. (2018). [Online]. Available from: https://www.gov.scot/publications/drink-drive-limit-policy/ [Accessed: 24 April 2019].
• Oxford Academic (2006). [Online]. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/28/1/24/1553721 [Accessed: 24 April 2019].
• BBC News. (2005). [Online]. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4635029.stm [Accessed: 24 April 2019].
• Creative Scotland. (2019). [Online]. Available from: https://www.creativescotland.com/funding/help-with-your-application/help-with-your-application/equal-opportunities [Accessed: 25 April 2019].