Reserved Matters

Part of Orders of the Day — Schedule 5 – in the House of Commons at 8:15 pm on 30 March 1998.

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Photo of Henry McLeish Henry McLeish Minister for Home Affairs and Devolution, Scottish Office 8:15, 30 March 1998

The same co-operation will exist. In a sense, we are reserving the drugs issue to Westminster—but that does not imply an undermining of the current co-operation, consultation and joint action.

I hope that hon. Members are persuaded that our proposals give the best possible protection to the public and ensure that the benefits that Scotland has derived from the lottery are sustained in future.

Amendment No. 474 proposes, in effect, that legislative competence for extradition should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The present legal framework for extradition—the Extradition Act 1989—reflects the United Kingdom's obligations under multilateral agreements such as the Council of Europe convention on extradition, its extradition arrangements with the Commonwealth and its bilateral treaties with foreign states. In practice, however, the Scottish Office and the Crown Office are responsible for processing applications for extradition where the person concerned is resident in Scotland. The Scottish Executive will assume that responsibility after devolution, through executive devolution.

In my view, it makes good sense to have a single legislative framework for the United Kingdom as a whole, while ensuring that in Scottish cases extradition requests from foreign states continue to be dealt with by the Scottish authorities, as they are now. That is what the Bill as it stands—combined with our proposals for executive devolution—will deliver. For all those reasons, I hope that the right hon. Member for Devizes will not press his amendment.

Amendment No. 18 would devolve legislative responsibility for lieutenancy matters to the Scottish Parliament. I fail to see any case for that, as this is manifestly a United Kingdom issue. The modern statutory provisions for the ancient office of lord lieutenant are set out in the Lieutenancies Act 1997. The office has direct links with the Crown. Her Majesty alone can appoint a lord lieutenant or remove him from office, and it is she who determines the area that any lieutenancy in the United Kingdom should comprise. In view of that, I hope that hon. Members will not press the amendment.

Our arrangements already provide for a degree of devolution. The Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Scotland currently exercise certain functions in relation to lieutenancies. Under the present proposals, they will be transferred to the First Minister, and in that respect the current arrangements are unchanged.

Many of the issues that have been raised tonight will be transferred to the Scottish Executive. That is consistent. A United Kingdom level playing field on drugs and guns is essential and I therefore ask the Committee to reject the amendment.