UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 1 March 2018.

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Photo of Michael Russell Michael Russell Scottish National Party

On Tuesday, I came to the chamber to make a statement about why the Scottish ministers consider it necessary now to introduce the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill, despite the continuing passage at Westminster of a bill with similar intent. Yesterday, the Lord Advocate came to the chamber to make, for the first time, a statement on the senior law officer’s reasons for respectfully considering the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill to be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, despite the Presiding Officer deciding not to grant it a positive certificate. Today, despite the weather, I am here to set out the Government’s reasons for seeking to have the bill considered under the emergency procedure. I will, in a moment, move the motion seeking Parliament’s approval for that approach.

The timetable proposed for dealing with the bill is not, as has been the case with previous emergency bills, to deal with all stages in one day. Some of us are old enough to remember that procedure being used to restore tolls on the Erskine bridge, for example. The emergency procedure has been used only very sparingly since then, and Parliament is rightly sparing in its approval of its use. However, I am proposing to Parliament today that we should consider the bill as an emergency measure over the next three weeks, starting with the stage 1 debate next Wednesday, then stage 2 the week after that and stage 3 the following week.