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 Maurice Golden Maurice Golden Conservative

The third reason why the bill is outwith this Parliament’s competence is that this Parliament cannot legislate on reserved matters. The bill sets out provisions on the principle of supremacy of EU law, and we contend that that relates to reserved matters, thus confirming that the bill is outwith this Parliament’s competence.

Therefore, we have established that the continuity bill is outwith this Parliament’s competence, and I am confident that the Supreme Court would agree with that analysis if required in due course.

I turn briefly to whether the bill should be considered as an emergency bill. The Scottish Parliament’s guidance on bills defines an emergency bill as

“a Government Bill that needs to be enacted more rapidly than the normal timetable allows”.

The continuity bill cannot have effect until March 2019, so that criterion cannot be met. It is worth remembering that half of the previous uses of emergency legislation procedure responded to court cases, another two responded to situations in which obvious legislative loopholes would have been created had the bills not been passed, and one ensured passage of the budget. The present case does not respond to a court case and no major loopholes would be created in existing legislation if the bill was passed in due time by the correct procedure.

That is why pushing through the continuity bill is a concern in terms of the full parliamentary scrutiny that is required in order that we pass full, efficient and proper law. Creating an emergency aspect for the bill will not allow that and Parliament will not be served.