The UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament can both make laws for Scotland. Usually the Scottish Parliament makes laws on issues that are “devolved” to Scotland.
Westminster makes laws on issues that are “reserved”. Those laws can apply to the whole UK.
Sometimes the UK Parliament will make laws for Scotland on:
There is a convention that the UK Parliament does not normally change the law in these ways without the Scottish Parliament’s consent.
There is a formal process for the Scottish Parliament to decide whether or not to give consent to “relevant provision” in a UK Parliament Bill. (“Relevant provision” means any part of the Bill that the Sewel convention applies to – for example, anything devolved.)
When the UK Parliament is considering a Bill that includes “relevant provision” affecting Scotland, the Scottish Government prepares a “legislative consent memorandum”. The memorandum explains to the Parliament how the Bill affects Scotland. It also sets out the Scottish Government’s view on whether or not the Parliament should consent to this Bill.
Usually a Parliament committee will look at the memorandum. It considers it and publishes a report to the Parliament. The report gives the committee’s views on whether the Scottish Parliament should consent to the “relevant provision” in the Bill.
Occasionally, because of the timings of the Bill in the UK Parliament, a memorandum needs to be looked at quickly. Occasionally, if there is not enough time for a committee to report on the memorandum, the memorandum can instead be looked at in the Debating Chamber.
Read Legislative Consent Memorandums
Read the rules for Legislative Consent in the Parliament’s Standing Orders
As well as lodging a memorandum, the Scottish Government is expected to lodge a motion, inviting the Parliament either to give consent or to refuse consent (or to give consent to some of the “relevant provisions” in the Bill and refuse consent to others). Any such motion is called a “motion on legislative consent”. (Occasionally, individual MSPs also lodge these motions.) Each motion on legislative consent is voted on in the Chamber, normally after the lead committee has reported on the legislative consent memorandum. There may be a debate before the motion is decided on, or the Parliament may decide straight away (without a decision).
In practice, this has to happen before the Bill goes through its last amending stage in the UK Parliament.
If the Scottish Parliament gives consent, the UK Parliament can go ahead with its legislation as planned. If the Scottish Parliament refuses (or doesn’t give) consent, the UK Government is normally expected to amend the legislation – for example, by taking out any provision on a devolved matter that the Parliament hasn’t consented to.
The UK Supreme Court decided in 2017 that the Scottish Parliament does not have a “legally enforceable veto”. This means that, even if the Scottish Parliament refuses consent to a Bill (or to a particular provision in the Bill), the UK Parliament can still pass it into law.