Legislative consent memorandum LCM-S7-1 was lodged on 5 June 2026 by Stephen Flynn MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport (‘the Cabinet Secretary’) and was referred to the Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee for scrutiny.

Following amendments to the Bill as it progressed through the UK Parliament, the Cabinet Secretary lodged two further supplementary legislative consent memorandums (sLCM). The first of these, sLCM-S7-1a, was lodged on 22 July 2026. A second supplementary legislative consent memorandum, sLCM-S7-1b, was lodged on 2 September 2026.

The Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee published its report on the previous memorandums on 2 October 2026.

The third supplementary legislative consent memorandum, sLCM-S7-1c, was lodged on 20 October 2026.

The UK Sporting Events Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 14 May 2026 by the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Its purpose is to enable a common set of legislative provisions to be applied to major sporting events held in the UK.

Instead of requiring event-specific primary legislation to be enacted, the UK Bill would establish a legislative framework across the UK, through which event-specific protections could be implemented by subordinate legislation.

The Bill confers powers on both UK Ministers and the Scottish Ministers to make regulations applying protections for certain commercial requirements in relation to ticket touting and ambush marketing for major sporting events hosted in the UK. Therefore, should the UK Bill be passed, any future scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament would be of subordinate rather than primary legislation. Following amendments to the Bill since its introduction, regulations applying the protections would be subject to the affirmative procedure (or the made affirmative procedure in urgent cases).

In the original LCM-S7-1 and the first supplementary sLCM-S7-1a, the Scottish Government stopped short of recommending consent to the relevant provisions of the Bill. In the second supplementary sLCM-S7-1b, the Scottish Government did recommend consent, on the basis that the Bill has the potential to provide a more consistent and efficient legislative framework to put in place commercial protections for supporting the hosting of major sporting events in Scotland, while retaining appropriate flexibility to tailor for individual events.

The Scottish Government lodged a third supplementary sLCM-S7-1c following amendments to the Bill tabled by the UK Government. The Scottish and UK Governments agree that the amendments to clauses 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 18, 24, 26, 27 and 30, to insert a new clause after clause 21, and to Schedules 1, 2 and 3 require the consent of the Scottish Parliament.

Further detail on the amendments is set out in sLCM-S7-1c. In particular, the amendments to clauses 2 and 3 change the circumstances in which the Scottish Ministers may apply the Bill’s provisions to a sporting event by:

• defining “domestic sporting event” as an event that is regularly held wholly or partly in the UK,

• creating a new condition which must be met in the case of domestic sporting events, namely that the event organiser must have applied to the appropriate national authority asking for one or more parts of the framework to be applied to the event,

• restricting the application of the Bill to events of “significant international interest”, rather than “significant national interest” (“significant international interest” had been the original text in the Bill as introduced but had then been amended).

The Scottish Government considers that the amendments tabled by the UK Government strike a pragmatic balance between the ask of some event organisers who had argued for the inclusion of recurring events and the needs of small businesses that may be impacted repeatedly.

More detail on the amended provisions requiring consent and the Scottish Government’s reasons for recommending consent is set out in sLCM-S7-1c. A draft motion seeking legislative consent is also included at the end of sLCM-S7-1c.

The Committee took evidence on the original LCM and the first two supplementary LCMs on 29 September 2026 from the Cabinet Secretary and his officials. The Committee agreed to recommend to the Parliament that it agree to the Scottish Government’s motion giving consent.

The Committee’s report on LCM-S7-1, sLCM-S7-1a and sLCM-S7-1b was published on 2 October 2026.

The Committee considered the third supplementary LCM at its meeting on 27 October 2026 and agreed to recommend to the Parliament that LCM-S7-1c be approved.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee (DPLRC) considered the LCM and two supplementary LCMs and published its report on the LCMs on 18 September 2026.

Due to the tight timescales for scrutiny of this third supplementary LCM, the DPLR Committee was unable to consider it before the Economy, Tourism and Energy Committee met on 27 October 2026. The DPLR Committee met on the same day, and published their report on 28 October 2026.