Economy and Fair Work Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Official Report 413KB pdf

Professional Qualifications Bill

Our next item of business is consideration of a second supplementary legislative consent memorandum on the Professional Qualifications Bill, which is a United Kingdom Government bill that was introduced in the House of Lords on 12 May 2021. The bill will change the law on devolved matters.

The committee considered the first LCM on the bill on 29 September 2021 and published a report on 22 November. Following amendments to the bill, the committee considered a second LCM on 9 February 2022 and published a further report on that day, after which the Scottish Parliament debated the LCM.

The UK Government confirmed that it was not prepared to add to the bill the consent mechanism that the Scottish Government seeks, but agreed to produce an amendment on consultation of devolved authorities, which was tabled on 22 February. Following that, the Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise wrote to tell the committee that the Scottish Government had lodged a second supplementary LCM and that its position on the bill remains unchanged—the Scottish Government does not recommend that Parliament give its consent to the bill.

The Parliament agreed on 1 March that, for the purposes of consideration of the second supplementary LCM, standing orders would be suspended, which removes the requirement for the committee to publish a report. Does the committee agree to note the second supplementary LCM on the bill and the minister’s letter?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes the public part of the meeting.