Question reference: S6W-02027
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 2 August 2021
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Current status: Answered by George Adam on 26 August 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to routinely publishing (a) details of when it has (i) sought and (ii) obtained Queen's consent and (b) associated correspondence in advance of the passage of legislation.
Answer
The Scotland Act 1998 requires the Standing Orders of the Scottish Parliament to include provision that if a Bill in the Scottish Parliament contains provisions which would, if it were a Bill in the UK Parliament, require the consent of the Queen, Crown consent is required.
Rule 9.11 of the Scottish Parliament’s Standing Orders therefore stipulates that if a Bill requires Crown consent, the Parliament cannot debate whether a Bill should be passed unless Crown consent is signified by a member of the Scottish Government. In most cases, where Crown Consent is required and as has been the case since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Crown consent is sought and obtained by the Government shortly before Stage 3 proceedings. On occasion, it may be obtained prior to Stage 1 when the matter is central to the Bill in question.
Members have – and have always had – the opportunity to raise questions as to whether and why Crown consent is required for a particular Bill during its parliamentary passage. Information about the number of times Crown consent has been sought and obtained, and for which Bills, is already available through the Parliament's Official Reports.
In line with the Scottish Government's commitment to transparency we will explore options to provide Parliament with further information about the application of Crown consent in relation to future Bills.