Justice Committee, 25 Mar 2008
Meeting date: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Official Report
279KB pdf
Statute Law (Repeals) Bill
Agenda item 5 is the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill, which is UK Parliament legislation. I refer members to legislative consent memorandum LCM(S3)11.1, which has been lodged by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill.
When the UK Parliament considers a bill that makes provision that applies to Scotland for any purpose that is within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, a Scottish minister must lodge a legislative consent motion that seeks the Scottish Parliament's consent to the relevant provisions in the bill. Before such a motion is lodged, a minister must lodge an associated memorandum, which the relevant committee must consider and report on.
The Statute Law (Repeals) Bill results from the "Statute Law Repeal: Eighteenth Report", which the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission published jointly on 29 January 2008. The report is the second post-devolution report that the two commissions have published. The "Statute Law Repeal: Seventeenth Report. Draft Statute Law Repeals Bill", which contained a number of repeals within the competence of the Scottish Parliament, was implemented in 2004. Although it will not substantively alter the current law of Scotland in relation to devolved matters, the Statute Law (Repeals) Bill contains provisions that fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and which could properly be the subject of legislation in the Scottish Parliament, so it is a relevant bill for the purposes of standing orders and an LCM is required.
As members have no comments, are we content to note the memorandum?
Members indicated agreement.
Under rule 9B.3.5 of standing orders, the committee is required to report on the memorandum. It need only be a short report confirming what we have agreed. We will do that in due course.