Devolution

After the publication of the Brown Commission report, I was surprised to discover that a Scottish comrade was underwhelmed by its proposals for Scotland, I don’t know why that way it should be, as I was underwhelmed by the English proposals for devolution; the whole thing is unambitious and the unimaginative hands of LOTO cover the proposals like a pall. The big problems for Labour in SCotland are its absence from debate on the Constitutional Question and thus the failure to offer more powers on benefits and taxation gives the SNP attack vectors on the proposals. The SNP arguments for independence are strengthened by the Tories decision to veto the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Recognition Act.

The election of a Sinn Féin and Plaid Cymru first ministers in Northern Ireland and Wales, resurrects the question of devolution and independence. I have added some comments on the current Welsh devolution settlement, and the Barnett formula. (Sep 2026).

There’s more on the constitutional question below/overleaf ….

Links

• My blog article on the Brown Commission, where the most powerful reform is that on the House of Lords, not its composition but its powers with a mandate to refuse constitutional reform.
• Reserved and devolved powers by the Scottish Parliament
• A list of articles, with a search word of Devolution from the IFG
• Richard Murphy, writes on the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland settlement, althouhg not so much in that article, but it has references to material in the National.

If thinking about DevoMAX

• The Calman Commission from wikipedia, established by the Scottish Parliament, in 2008, defines the manifesto for DevoMAX.
• The Smith Commission again from wikipedia, this was post indyref and mentions the Vow.

What is the Sewell Convention?

The HoC Library says, on its landing page,

The Sewel Convention applies when the UK Parliament wants to legislate on a matter within the devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales or Northern Ireland Assembly. Under the terms of the Convention, the UK Parliament will “not normally” do so without the relevant devolved institution having passed a legislative consent motion.

Interestingly the HoC Library paper on the Sewel Convention has been replaced as a result of the Govt’s need to ignore the Scottish and Welsh parliament’s withholding of consent.

Were legislative consent to be withheld in relation to one or more of the relevant Brexit framework Bills, the UK Government would not be prevented, legally, from presenting the legislation for Royal Assent. To do so, however, would be a constitutionally unprecedented course of action, the Government having explicitly acknowledged that the convention applies to those Bills.

What is the Barnett formula?

Some welsh correspondents claim to me that the Barnett formula, the basis on which payments from the Westminster Government to the budgets of the devolved nations was abused by the Tories to deny Wales funding? This led me to have a look,

1. I found this, https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/barnett-formula from the IFG by asking google, “What is the Barnett formula?”

What about Wales?

The Welsh devolution Settlement is different from the Scottish one. I may need to read up some more, but I was pointed at these two issues:

1. I then asked why HS2 did not generate payments to Wales, and found a BBC article, within a google reply to “Why does HS2 not generate Barnett formulae payments to wales?”. See also Transport funding for Wales and HS2 from the House of Commons library. The short answer is that HS2 is considered to benefit Wales and so does not generate a subsidy claim.
2. A further story was the flooding of Capel Celyn, to build a reservoir for Liverpool; this was legalised by private legislation, passed by the Westminster parliament, dominated by English MPs. The Welsh town was on of the last, at that time, Welsh speaking towns. Whether such legislation would get through today is a moot point, the last private bill that was proposed was the Royal Albert Hall bill. Actually there’s another one proposed about Cheltenham Market in Jan 2026.

The latter case also brings up Cameron’s electoral reforms which reduced the number of Welsh seats below its previously guaranteed minimum. A study of the Tory electoral reforms would show a consistent efforts to tilt the system towards them.

Scottish Labour

The motion for Scottish Labour’s 2023 Conference, C7. The Constitutional Question. and Starmer’s speech, frames the Brown Commission in a unionist framing. Is this good enough?